Almost Famous

Rating: Null/10 (22 March 2017)

Untalented as a songwriter but nevertheless set on making it as a musician, a young Irishman quits his day job to join an eccentric band whose lead singer dons a papier-mâché mask that he never removes in this offbeat drama. Domhnall Gleeson is fine as the milquetoast young protagonist who becomes more and more of an authoritative voice in the band and Michael Fassbender has some solid moments in a mostly voice-only performance as the singer; his observation about normal human faces being a little strange themselves certainly resonates. The talents of the two leads are, however, hardly maximised here. Stories about the rise and falls of bands are a dime a dozen and 'Frank' does little to distinguish itself other than the mask, which soon becomes more of an annoying gimmick than delightful quirk as it distracts from Gleeson's character growth. The music is hardly great either, though the film's weakest area is its supporting characters; it is hard to feel for the band's highs and lows when we only get to know two of them in depth. Then there is the love-hate relationship between Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal which never rings true. Having Gleeson constant tweet about his experiences with his tweets appearing over the action is a further jarring touch that subtracts from the immediacy of the action. Director Lenny Abrahamson would of course later go on to score an Oscar nomination for directing 'Room'. This earlier effort is a strikingly different sort of motion picture at least and may be of interest to those retrospectively exploring his filmmaking origins.