Frankie

Shallow and ultimately irritating collage of characters intersect and ruminate in what feels like a cut-rate Woody Allen project; this great cast should have been able to bring some spark to this, but all seem to have been directed to deliver their lines as if phonetically reading from a phone book. Some admittedly stunning scenery and cinematography at least holds your attention most of the time; quizzically open-ended finale is more annoying than thought provoking.

I wish I liked this movie as much as I liked the final shot (which has much going on, including references to Bergman and Rohmer). Alas, the only character that gripped me in any way was Tomei's Ileen, who brought a liveliness and spirit that was simply missing from any of the other characters.

Perdede, Rexx