Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 2.0
Good concept, poor story
I don't think this film is THAT brilliant. Yes, it explores interesting philosophical issues (for example, Lola's question to her boyfriend: "If I never existed, would you now be telling some other girl you loved her?"). Yes, it is edited frenetically like a music video and shot in bright, fun colors like Gregg Araki's films. However, a premise + style is not enough to make this really memorable.The plot itself is rather weak. There are two categories of information in the story: factual stuff and hypothetical stuff. As far as facts go, all we know is that Lola's boyfriend owes some top gangster guy 100000 marks and needs it in 20 minutes or else he is certain the top gangster will kill him. In each of the three hypothetical sequences branching from this situation, Lola and her boyfriend disregard obvious possiblities.Manni, the boyfriend, claims that he cannot run from the deal because "no one escapes" from the top gangster guy. I found this frustrating because relying on the improbable appearance of 100000 marks within 20 minutes seems RIDICULOUS! Of course, it works out because this is a movie, not real life. But an intelligent person in real life would most likely not wait helplessly for his girlfriend to show up with money she doesn't have yet--and with his life at stake.There are other instances in which the characters are inexplicably dumb. For instance, Lola herself, though she is in such a hurry to get the money, stalls when she sees her father in the midst of an affair. Of course it is an emotional situation, but when someone's life is at risk, it seems she would not beat around the bush in asking for the cash.This does get slow at times because the audience gets used to all the fast editing, and it stops looking so special. In fact, by the end I felt it hadn't really been worth finishing, because there were no new revelations, no mind-blowing conclusion.Rather than address everything that made this implausible and hindered identification with either main character, I will recommend this film. Maybe skim through it or something, just to absorb the ideas. Good concept, poor story. "Groundhog Day", though more mainstream, was a better exploration of chance.