Run
Lola Run
(1998)
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 Hour and 21 Minutes
Reviewer: Erik
Grade: AIf movies were sporting events, "Citizen Kane" would be the world chess championship and "Run Lola Run" would be the Super Bowl. I'm hard-pressed to think of any movie that had so much action, such a frantic pace and so much running. The movie left me breathless. I can't imagine how Lola must have felt.
The premise is simple: Lola (Franka Potente) gets a call from her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) one morning. Manni has just lost 100,000 marks (obtained in a drug deal) on a train and must come up with the money in 20 minutes or else a local thug will do him in. Lola will do what she can to come up with the money. If she's a second too late, Manni will have no choice but to knock over a store in hope of getting enough money.
Lola will not get it right with her first attempt, but she'll hope for another one and she'll get it, and when she screws that one up too, she'll get yet another. While running through the city,
Lola will come across a bum, an ambulance driver, a guy selling a bike, her father, a car accident, and some other characters.
Each time Lola takes another stab at it, she does things differently -- although minutely different -- and it changes history for each of the people involved, both major and minor characters. For instance, if she's off just a half-second in her running, she'll either cause a car accident or prevent one, and the people involved may be injured or go about their daily business.
The underlying theme of the movie is, of course, the importance of time and how the smallest incident could change history forever. The twists and turns surrounding the theme were better than what I was hoping for. I especially liked how Lola's father could be either happy or angry depending on how much of his mistress' story came out (Lola shows up at his office at different points during the conversation).
"Run Lola Run" does little in the way of character development, but to focus on that would be missing the point. The movie is a visual, stylistic charm. There are some great camera angles, exciting split-screen shots, some black and white, some slow-mo, some hyper animation and a techno rock beat pulse almost the whole way through. This movie is very much alive.
It would be a crime to write this movie off as simple eye candy. Most eye candy has a lot of action and flair, yet no good solid theme. "Run Lola Run" has all that to the Nth degree.