Movies

A young woman has 20 minutes to rescue her boyfriend from the mob's clutches in this stylistic German thriller. Filmed in hyper-kinetic visual style, the story is told from three different perspectives, each with a different outcome.

Franka Potente is Lola. We are taken for three turns on a wild ride as she attempts to save her boyfriend. Pretty simple really, all she needs to do is come up with 100,000 marks in 20 minutes. Ok, so maybe that is not so simple. The movie derives its name from the fact that, due to a lack of other modes of transportation, Lola must run.

The three different views come from slight variations in timing and action. What I liked most about the film is the idea that there is no "fate"; there is no written script for our lives. We see through Lola that even the smallest event can have an entirely life altering affect on not only yourself, but also on others around you. In each of the three versions, Lola encounters the same people; people she runs past as she attempts to save Manni, her boyfriend. As she passes a few specific people we get a small glimpse of how their lives turn out. Sure the point can be made that by running past an old woman and bumping into her by accident or running cleanly past her will not directly be the difference between two polar opposite outcomes in her life, but the message has a broader meaning.

I cannot recommend this movie to anyone in any given movie-watching situation. I think that if you are in the mood for something more out of the ordinary or maybe something slightly artsy then giving Run Lola Run a try is worth it. I was not in either of these moods, but hey, I will watch anything once.

Buy Run Lola Run $14.96

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