Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scott McNairy, Tess Harper, Matthew Page, Hayley Derryberry, Travis Hammer, Mark Huberman, Jamie Powers, Kevin Wiggins, Stephen M. Hardin, Paul Butterworth, Morse Bicknell, Jessica Stotz Harrell, Crystal Miller, Alex Knight, Lauren Poole, François Civil, Abe Bueno Jallad, Philip David Pickard, Katie Anne Mitchell, Bruce McIntosh, Jean Effron, J.B. Tuttle, Laura-Love Tode, Andy Brooks, Jordyn Aurora Aquino, Dean Satriano, Rosalind Adler.

Going into any film with an open mind can lead you along the path to some extraordinary stuff. Sometimes, the more whacked out a film is, the more you can appreciate the greatness and significance of the writer and director’s vision. It doesn’t work for every film but it certainly works in abundance in Frank.

Based loosely on the British cult figure of Frank Sidebottom, the Anglo/Irish production sees Domhnall Gleeson as a music loving man who has tried all his life to write a song and despite having the will, he isn’t able to channel his inner feeling of musical failure, which he blames on having a good childhood free of trauma. All seems in vein until the day he meets a band on the road whose keyboard player has lost the will to keep playing and into his life steps Frank, a man behind a very big mask; a man who never shows his face, although he quite adept at describing his feelings, and who is pronounced as the sanest cat there is.

The three main stars of the film give exceptional performances, Domhnall Gleeson just seems to light up the screen no matter what film he is in and Maggie Gyllenhaal gives an exceptionally powerful display as the woman in Frank’s life and indeed arguably gives the kind of presentation as the Theremin playing Clara that earned her so many plaudits in the 2002 film Secretary. However it is in Michael Fassbender that Frank becomes alive and meaningful. For an actor of huge range and who could pick almost any role he pleased, to appear in something so off beat, so wide of the cinematic tangent and give all to the role is beyond an audiences wildest expectations. His chemistry with both Ms Gyllenhaal and Domhnall Gleeson is enjoyable to the point of making the face ache with so much smiling and his relationship with his own outward persona is one that defies criticism. He manages to capture the very real point of mental illness and sincere individuality in such an easy on the eye way that you can but want to tell him that it’s ok to be that guy, whatever it takes to get well, you would be there to support him.

The ending of the film, the realisation of what his life has amounted to is both heart-breaking and nourishing, that somebody can find that much pleasure in music, in the simplest of notes and the experimentation of it all is something that perhaps we should all strive for rather than letting corporations dictate what we hear and how we hear it.

Frank is forthright, surreal and honest, blunt in parts, outrageously good in others and yet throughout it all, the message of individuality and understanding and having compassion for mental illness, no matter what shape or form it takes is a communication we should at least try to hear from time to time.

Ian D. Hall