The film is net in the beautiful Portugese village of Sintra and it all takes place in one day. Françoise Crémont, otherwise known as Frankie, played by Isabelle Huppert has decided to bring her family together for a vacation in this picturesque village and we sit back and enjoy that lack of action as this group of characters reveal much about their lives and about life during the course of one day.

Frankie who is an arthouse film actress and very well known in intellectual circles is suffering from a terminal illness.  She has only a few months to live and she has really summoned her family because she wants to sort out a complex tangle of relationships and feelings.  Sachs handles all this with a very elegant style that pays homage to Rohmer and the film is really about the conversations and feelings over the course of the day.  At first we have no idea who is how and what their relationships to each other are.  It could almost be compared to a drawing room theatre piece.

During the course of the day the dreams, relationships and feelings about the major things that matter to all of us are examined in a light and indirect way. We are looking at relationships in our lives and what really matters in those relationships. Frankie and her husband Jimmy played by Brendan Gleeson are a close and loving couple.  We see him in tears as he thinks about the impending death of his wife.  There is also Frankie’s son Paul played by Jérémie Renier a high flying finance type and her step-daughter Sylvia played by Vinette Robinson who enter the picture. The tension between them is a mystery that is resolved in the course of the film as are many of the underlying currents of tension within the family. Sylvia and her husband years to Ian played by Ariyon Bakare are on the verge of a divorce but trying to avoid talking about it but when they finally do it provides plenty of verbal fireworks. They have a teenage daughter May played by Sennia Nanua who is also another source of tension in the complex relationships that the simple day in the countryside reveals.

We also meet Frankie’s first husband Michel played by Pascal Greggory who has discovered that his is gay and is satisfied with his sexual orientation.  The casting of Gerggory is another nod to Rohmer as he played in one of Rohmer’s films Pauline at the Beach. What Sachs does is take what is a light and really non-eventful situation and turn it into a introspective look at what is most profound in our lives and our relationships without ever hitting the heavy handed American take on these issues.  This is a very French film from a very American director.

Frankie (France/Portugal/Belgium/USA)

Directed by Ira Sachs

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Marisa Tomei, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear, Vinette Robinson, Jérémie Renier, Ariyon Bakare, Carloto Cotta, Pascal Greggory