On my never-ending mission to power through just about any movie with a whiff of sentimentality to anyone, I landed on this German made piece of film, Run Lola Run. Fast paced, energetic and just a tiny sense of self-awareness to how preposterous a storyline it details, the Tom Tykwer directed film comes at a time where dance and techno music was still popular. What dark times they were, and Run Lola Run, rather than combatting such dark and dreary forces, engages with it on a level that filmmakers today can still respond to and develop upon.
As a piece of genre film, its contemporary mixing of visuals and sound is wonderful. It displays a confident energy and timely understanding of how utilising a soundtrack correctly can work wonders on a simplistic premise. Tasked with bringing her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), 100,000 Deutschmarks in only twenty minutes, we follow Lola down three different paths and experience the importance of time and the rights and wrongs they bring.
Franka Potente’s titular, leading role brings about urgency and simplicity to a character that feels well balanced. For a film that lasts for only seventy minutes, it’s surprising how much Tykwer gives his cast to work with. Much of this, I assume, comes from three very different experiences in their layered storytelling works. With an initial, facile story device, Run Lola Run soon expands on the miraculous intricacies of its story by providing us with a whole host of characters that react rather differently in each story. The relevance and incessant need to mention time and how the slightest of choices can unravel the biggest of decisions is great, and something that connected with me rather frequently throughout the running time given that I do worry about timekeeping and how it’s all very futile in the long run.
It’s a shame the supporting performers don’t care to that extent, with Potente’s performance being the sole shining star throughout a cast of characters that do next to nothing of interest. Her performance as Lola is great, really capturing the stress and anxiety needed to provide us with a fast paced, action-packed thrill ride. Her interactions with the supporting cast highlight that extreme desperation with the vague belief that she could just about manage to raise the funds in only twenty minutes. Yet it also highlights how most of the energy within the film comes from only one character, and without them the entire film would be a complete lost cause. Tykwer’s direction and Potente’s performance work hand in hand, their time keeping skills are essential to the smooth sailing of the film.
Run Lola Run manages to bring a fiery and unique intensity to a rather simple premise. It lacks the storytelling mechanisms to bring us fully fleshed out characters, but there’s a strange beauty in being able to connect with characters that haven’t received the formulaic expectations of storytelling. We know nothing of their likes and dislikes, their hobbies and interests. All we’re told as an audience is that these characters are in a desperate situation, and have a mere twenty minutes to get out of it. For that, Run Lola Run manages to become a meritable, fully engaging yet somewhat forgettable time.
