Run Lola Run (Non-Analytical)

Lola (Franka Potente) picks up the telephone. It's Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). He tells her that he forgot a hundred thousand marks on a subway. A homeless guy took it all (don't blame him). Lola has to get a hundred thousand marks in a matter of twenty minutes otherwise "something horrible will happen!" GO!

For most of the movie this is the experience: fast choppy action, screen shots coming from a million places, and a whole lot of confusion. There's not much dialog and there's trance (techno) music throughout the whole movie. The title could not describe Lola any clearer. She runs throughout the movie encountering others and just by the minute things Lola does, she causes dramatic things to happen. These events come in many forms, from creepy to lucky to comical. And although it sounds like I'm bashing the movie they pull it off so that the audience is on the rollercoaster with Lola.

For the whole movie the audience is on the edge of their seat, bombarded by music, thoughts, and overall there is almost no dialog. They allow the audience to think for the whole time. As Lola runs she first encounters an old woman in a carriage and as she charges she accidentally bumps into the older woman. She struts along with her baby, calls Lola a bitch, and goes along with her day. The camera zooms more towards the old woman and we see a series of pictures with her and a baby. Nothing else. The next event is when she runs to her dad in the bank, he's having an affair with the woman, the woman asks if he's willing to give up his family, and he is, and as that happens it cuts quickly back to Lola who is asked by a guy with a bike for fifty marks to buy the bike from him.

Then there are snap shots of his life. Each snap shot has him being beaten up. He has a bloody nose and he looks beaten up. So far it looks bad but then there's a picture of him and a nurse and apparently they get married.

As she runs more and more encounters like this happen. If you want a movie grounded only in realism and have no sort of surprises then don't watch this movie. If you want a movie that is sort of passive and you don't want to think while you watch, don't get this movie. If you want an entertaining film that makes you think and has surprises around the corner and information shooting at you then this movie is perfect.

This movie stirs discussion, not just adoration.

I would give this a 9.2/10.