Lola, played by Franka Potente, is a young woman living in Germany when she receives a panicked phone call from her boyfriend Manni, played by Moritz Bleibtrau. Manni has botched a drug deal and needs Lola’s help; he left a lot of money on a subway train after Lola failed to pick up at the location of the deal (the result of Lola’s moped being stolen while she was buying cigarettes). Lola has twenty minutes in which to secure 100,000 deutschemarks and save her boyfriend’s life. “Run Lola Run” is an 83 minute film, which follows Lola’s journey, and a whole lot of “what ifs” in her attempts to save Manni from what, he believes to be, an imminent and messy death at the hands of the boss that hired him to complete the job.
This is the type of film that Hollywood shrinks away from and even shuns; directors, such as Spielberg and Lucas would never have considered making a film like this because it probably would not make them a dime here. However, just because a big name American director didn’t make this movie doesn’t mean that it is garbage. The opposite is actually the truth. A film like this has much to offer to audiences in America. It was creative, artistic and prompted a lot of thought on my part. It encouraged me to think about the choices that I make daily, both big and little, and what affect that will have on my life because the central theme in this movie is how the little choices that we make have a gigantic impact on the rest of our lives.
The director, Tom Twyker, uses very quick and very short scenes to move this film along. It is a very choppy movie; however the choppiness does not detract from the plot or character development at all. The plot actually runs much more smoothly than more traditionally filmed movies, where the plot moves seamlessly from Point A to B. As the movie progresses, you can see the decisions that Lola makes, empathize with her and see her develop as a character. I actually had admiration and respect for her by the end of the move. Manni, on the other hand, was a completely different story. Manni was the sort of person that refused to take any personal responsibility for his own actions. The movie begins with him making a panicked phone call to Lola, who couldn’t pick him up and blaming her for his loss of a lot of money. He then, effectively, blamed her for any future ramifications that he would feel as a result of that loss, including his death. Manni charged her with solving his own problem. That turned me off.
Potente did a very good job as Lola; she embraced the character and became her. Potente was edgy and generally, magnificent! Wonderful!
This is definitely a good, albeit bizarre, movie to watch. Rent it today.
