A One Mann’s Movies review of “King Frankie” (2024) (From the 2024 Irish Film Festival, London).
The final film I’ve seen at this year’s Irish Film Festival, “King Frankie”, is a decent little drama, but I found it a little predictable in its storytelling.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“King Frankie” Plot Summary:
Past traumatic events come back to haunt a Dublin taxi driver grieving the loss of his father in this gritty Irish drama.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: NR. (From the BBFC web site: “Bloody images, very strong language”)
Talent:
Starring: Peter Coonan, Olivia Caffrey, Ruairi O’Connor, Rob Malone, Owen Roe, Lynn Rafferty, Ally Ni Chiarain, Alan Mahon, Ger Kelly.
Directed by: Dermot Malone.
Written by: Dermot Malone.
Running Time: 1h 35m.
“King Frankie” Summary:
Positives:
- A great leading performance by Peter Coonan.
- A nice juxtaposition of the heyday of the dot-com boom and Frankie’s current reality.
Negatives:
- I guessed early on where the story would be going and was right.
Review of “King Frankie”:
A tale of two eras.
This is a film that only reveals its hand progressively as the film runs, so I don’t want to say too much about the plot for fear of spoiling it. Just to say that we are looking at Frankie’s life in two different eras: a period through the 90’s and Noughties (known in Ireland as the “Celtic Tigers” era) and then a period 10 years after that. And, for Frankie, there is a strong contrast between them. The drama lies in the journey from a to b and the casualties along the way.
Held together by Coonan’s performance.
The film is really held together by the acting of Peter Coonan. It’s an interesting challenge. In the earlier time period he is cocky, arrogant, obnoxious. In the present day he is emotional, full of regrets, hesitant. However, his inherent business drive (now in building a taxi company up from nothing) is still there, bubbling under the surface. Coonan meets all of these various acting requirements with some considerable style.
I also particularly liked the screen presence of Owen Roe playing Frankie’s father Aidan.
It’s good, but…
Otherwise, the film is fine and eminently watchable. The locations (especially the Irish industrial seascapes) are interesting and well filmed by DoP Luke Jacobs. Jacobs also chooses to use a different colour pallette between past (vibrant) and present (drab). A key dramatic moment is very well cut together by Rob Hegarty.
But despite its good points, it didn’t massively float my boat. My main issue is that I thought the progression of the story was rather predictable. Indeed, from about half way through, it went exactly where I thought it would go without any surprise.
Summary Thoughts on “King Frankie”
It’s a nice enough little Irish thriller and worth your time. But it never jumped out at me as a “Must Watch” the way that “Swing Bout” did.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “King Frankie”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDaiNLtwn6Y.
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