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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 7321900117876
Format: NTSC
Number Of Discs: 1
Region Code: 2
Sales Rank: 156905
Theatrical Release Date: February 26, 1988
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Living in exile in Paris after eluding a controversial charge of statutory rape in America, director Roman Polanski seemed professionally adrift during the 1980s, making only one film (the ill-fated Pirates) between 1979 and 1988. Then Polanski found inspiration--and a major star in Harrison Ford--to make Frantic, a thriller that played directly into Polanski's gift for creating an atmosphere of mystery, dread, escalating suspense, and uncertain fate. Set in Paris (Polanski couldn't go to Hollywood, so Hollywood came to him), the story begins when an American heart surgeon (Ford) arrives in the City of Lights with his wife (Betty Buckley) for a medical convention. They check into a posh hotel, and in a brilliantly directed scene, Ford takes a shower and emerges to find that his wife has vanished. This mysterious disappearance--and a confusion between two identical pieces of luggage--leads Ford into the Paris underground and a plot that grows increasingly dangerous as he approaches the truth of his wife's disappearance. The plot gets too complicated, and the pace drops off in the cluttered second half, but in Polanski's capable hands the film is blessed with moments of heightened suspense in the tradition of classic thrillers. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Hitchcockian thriller with brilliant work by Harrison Ford
This film is one to behold for one terrific performance by Harrison Ford. While vacationing in Paris, Dr. Richard Walker's wife disappears mysteriously while he is taking a shower. Now he must put the pieces of the puzzle together in order to find out what happened to her. You can really sense the frustration, anger and confusion the frightened Harrison Ford must evoke from one scene to the next. Emmanuelle Seigner as the young girl who will help him is gorgeous and something else to behold. Frantic ... Read More
Rating:  - Not aging well
Maybe this was hot stuff 20 years ago, but it seems a bit dated now. The soundtrack is especially old fashioned, almost embarrassing, like something from the 50s. The plot is fairly standard suspense fare. The writing is nothing to write home about. There is a little suspense, but it's no nail biter. After 9-11, the plot about Arabs stealing a nuclear timing device seems prescient, I will say that. Ford's wife is incredibly frumpy and not believable. The scenes of Paris are mostly unattractive. In short, ... Read More
Rating: - Americans must be well protected in Paris
Discover Paris the way you would probably never see it. Garbage collecting trucks shown three times in the film. The French police that understands English and does not like nervous Americans, and they send their incognito agents behind the man they have more or less sent to hell. The US embassy obviously speaking with a forked tongue, being reassuring on one side and sending its secret agents behind the American citizen at once without telling him of course (S*** for S***head as Dr Walker says). Then a Statue ... Read More
Rating: - DVD Drama
Harrison Ford can do no wrong. He is a very good actor! I took one star off due to the fact that I could not pick up the plot until part way through and then it was still not clear who wanted the item she had and why it was so important.
Rating: - Evocative and forward-looking thriller
As other reviewers here have pointed out, Frantic plays like Polanski's homage to Hitchcock. An American doctor's wife is kidnapped in Paris in a case of mistaken identity. The doctor, Richard Walker, is in Paris for a medical convention. He's disengaged from the city--Paris is just a backdrop for a lecture he'll be giving. His wife's disappearance forces him into the city's underworld. Polanski presciently makes the villains from the Middle East (at a time when everyone was still so hung up on the Cold War). The ... Read More
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