Frankie And Alice [2010]

I haven’t seen Halle Berry in a movie since “Things We Lost In The Fire”. For a second there I thought she was done with acting. No worries: she’s back, and what a wonderful comeback it was. Her performance as a multiracial character in “Frankie And Alice” with personality disorder is hearbreaking, uplifting and outstanding. Berry plays a stripper named Frankie whose mood swings has scared the living daylights out of her coworkers and boss. It turns out that these mood swings are much more serious than we might think: Frankie has two other personalities sharing her tired body. One is a frightened but very smart little girl who her psychiatrist Dr. Oz named genius, while the other one is a racist white woman called Alice. As we move along, we discover that there is a lot of history that inspired Frankie to take on these alter personas and how easily they can be triggered by something as simple as a song on the radio.

The first thing you should know about this film is that it’s based on a true story. The sooner you realise that, the more you’ll enjoy it. I watched this one with no expectations at all, and I was entirely satisfied by it. It’s engaging and gripping throughout, and it’s hard not to sympathize with Berry’s character as her painful past is revealed to us through a series of flashbacks. So before this movie gets lost in the shuffle, I suggest you check it out; of course the story isn’t as original as one might want it to be (we’ve all seen films dealing with the same subject before), but when the performances are this honest and good, its hard to complain.

Rating: 3/4