Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
"The ball is round. The game lasts minutes. That's a fact."
This heart-pumping, frantic, postmodern German film models itself after a video game, where different choices lead down different paths, to different conclusions, all within the control of the player. And yet, this film is so much more than that.Franka Potente plays clown-haired Lola, a young woman in love with bumbling Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) and who finds herself racing against the clock to scrounge up the vast sum of 100,000 marks to save Manni's life. As she runs through Berlin, she bumps into various people, whose fates are shown in flashes of slideshows, who may help or hinder her. The soundtrack is thumping, almost minimalist, with a voice droning over Lola's high-stakes sprint, and it keeps the viewer as breathless as Lola herself.Because this film messes with the viewer's mind, the plot cannot be fully described without revealing spoilers. Suffice it to say that viewers will have their expectations changed at every step. The production standards are not Hollywood-slick, but director Twyker adeptly portrays both the desperate and the sweet in this story, with brilliant cinematography that takes this film to a high level. As the depth of Lola's and Manni's relationship is revealed, the character form the heart of this surprising, thought-provoking film.Watch this more than once. You'll love it.