Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 4.0
A crash course in the power of human will...
Many people have referred to 'Lola's' déjà vu narrative structure, and compared it with such films as Sliding Doors and Groundhog Day. I give it more credit than that (don't get me wrong - I love Groundhog Day!). In those cases the character was caught in the film's mystery, unable to break the time-warp spell and get on with their lives. Here, time breaks, shifts, bends, and cracks for one simple reason: because Lola wills it so. She wills herself a second chance to get Manni the money. She wills the spectacular (photo-captured) futures of the people she runs into on the street. She wills the money from her father. And in the final sequence at the casino, her will is put on it's most bare, full-throated display. Rarely have I been more satisfied with a cliched ending; it had to be that way, because that's what Lola wanted (and whatever Lola wants, Lola gets! Omigod! Is it all just a thinly veiled 'Damn Yankees' reference?)It borrows its schizophrenic style from 'Natural Born Killers', utilizing video, film, and cartoon, quick editing, disturbed camera angles, and even an oppressive musical soundtrack. I'm still trying to decide if the style added or subtracted from the narrative. I enjoyed the cartoon; thought it was perfectly edited; and never felt like I was watching the same scene over again because the style was unique for each pass. But there were times when the style got in the way, when it didn't add a thing to the narrative, and proved distracting. But those times were few enough for me to say that overall the style worked. And it was so fun, and kinetic, and riveting. Like an 85-minute music video, with a cohesive (albeit existential plot). You can't not pay attention to Lola.