King Frankie

The Plot: Frankie (Peter Coonan) once had it all. In 2009, he was riding the crashing waves of the recession. He lived the high life, treating his wife and daughter to fancy birthday parties as if he had unlimited pockets. Then reality caved in, as his financial dealings and reckless behaviour came to light. A decade later, he lives a quieter life with his parents and runs a taxi company in the Dublin suburbs that’s held in good regard by the locals. However, the past isn’t done with Frankie and soon enough some watery ghosts come back to the surface for a reckoning…

The Verdict: In a key scene in King Frankie, the lead character is having a heart-to-heart with a young man. The now middle-aged Frankie has been through a lot and is full of deep regret, but he’s trying to move forward with his current life. He says something that becomes a sort-of mission statement for the film itself: don’t waste time on things you can’t change. That seems to be the foundation and thereby a starting point for this commendable Irish feature debut from writer-director Dermot Malone. It’s a film about a character’s ability to change over time, but only once he’s faced the past head on and laid those ghosts to rest. Malone is not letting Frankie off the hook that easily, which is why Frankie finds himself in this predicament whereby two important life events, a birthday party in one decade and a funeral in the other, lead to a realisation that he can’t change the past. However, he can change the present and the future.

For a first timer, this is a remarkably accomplished script by Malone. It has the polish of a seasoned screenwriter who understands character arcs, shades of complexity and that the script can ultimately only do so much. Words on a printed page are lifeless until an actor of the right calibre can harness them and bring his/her own contribution and interpretation. If, as Hamlet suggested, the play’s the thing wherein he’ll catch the conscience of the king, then Malone is keen to catch this particular king’s conscience and watch it squirm in his own theatrical environment of the cinema. Not that he’s unsympathetic to Frankie. In the more recent time period, we see a changed Frankie. Not quite a stark contrast, but enough to suggest that the money-in, money straight-out Frankie of old is still there but held at bay. This is the way that Malone approaches his story, intercutting the two time periods of Frankie’s life by helpfully having actor Peter Coonan wear glasses and look a bit more haggard in the latter time period. The story unfolds like an onion being peeled, the stinging sensations part of the package.

It’s a rich enough character arc for any actor and Coonan grabs it with both hands. He’s been a welcome presence since he appeared on the Irish film scene in 2000 and can also be seen in the upcoming Kathleen Is Here. King Frankie is arguably his finest hour to date though, worthy enough of a Best Actor IFTA nomination next year. He flits back and forth between the two Frankies who gradually merge into one. It’s not easy to portray a character over two time periods and have a significant time and character gap between them, but Coonan takes it in his stride. The old Frankie is a somewhat despicable, irresponsible character but Coonan still brings a humanity to him that is hard to deny. This is where his contribution as an actor brings the script up another notch, an actor-director collaboration that gives the film its resonance. It’s a little bit rough around the edges, leaving some things unsaid that probably should have been said. Or maybe it’s all just reflected in Coonan’s haunted eyes. With time and more features under his belt, Malone will be able to refine his outlook. King Frankie is an assured debut feature from an interesting new voice in Irish cinema. It’ll be interesting to see what Malone does next.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Review by Gareth O’Connor