June
18, 1999 | Tearing through the streets of Berlin like lightning
on the hoof, Lola (Franka Potente) is a woman on a mission.
Manni
(Moritz Bleibtreu), her none-too-bright boyfriend, is a petty criminal
with a major problem: He needs a large sum of money in 20 minutes to
replace the loot he lost while taking the subway to a rendezvous with
his unforgiving boss. Lola doesn't have the cash -- but maybe she can
beg, borrow or steal what she needs from her banker father. Trouble
is, she must get to the bank, and then to Manni, on foot. Hence the
movie's title -- Run Lola Run -- and the heroine's mounting desperation.
Lola
quite literally is in a race against time. Fortunately, she is so stubborn
and strong-willed that, even when she loses, she can demand a rematch.
Run
Lola Run is a flashy and frenetic mix of video-game logic and music-video
panache, choreographed to the insistent beat of a throbbing techno-pop
score. Scattered here and there amid the sensory overload are a few
intriguing observations about fate, chance and determinism. Writer-director
Tom Tykwer obviously wants to illustrate how everyone -- Lola, Manni,
innocent bystanders, passing strangers -- is vulnerable to random variables
that can brighten, darken or dramatically shorten one's life. (The movie
sporadically pauses for rapid-fire montages that chart the destinies
of secondary characters.) But style, not substance, is Tykwer's primary
concern. At heart, Run Lola Run is a giddy celebration of moviemaking
magic for its own sake, an anything-goes extravaganza that repeatedly
underscores its own unreality.
Like
a video-game adventuress who repeatedly returns from the dead, Lola
gets three different chances to dash through her worst-case scenario.
Every time she plays the game, she must traverse the same route within
the same timeframe. But each journey is unique -- for Lola, as well
as for the people in her orbit -- and each destination is markedly different.
With
her punkish flame-red hair and keep-on-truckin' body language as the
go-go Lola, Franka Potente often comes across as a living-and-breathing
special effect -- an impression Tykwer gleefully reinforces by occasionally
replacing her with an animated cartoon doppelganger. Even so,
Potente never spoils the fun by winking at the audience, or otherwise
acknowledging that she's in on the joke. Rather, she plays Lola with
a completely serious and surprisingly affecting intensity while conveying
her fierce determination to beat the clock. Almost single-handedly,
Potente provides a touch of heart and soul as counterpoint to all the
dazzling sound and fury