Amazon.com Essentials:
It's difficult to create a film that's fast paced, exciting, and
aesthetically appealing without diluting its dialogue. Run Lola Run,
directed and written by Tom Tykwer, is an enchanting balance of pace and
narrative, creating a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers.
This is the story of young Lola (Franka Potente) and her boyfriend Manni
(Moritz Bleibtreu). In the space of 20 minutes, they must come up with
100,000 deutsche marks to pay back a seedy gangster, who will be less than
forgiving when he finds out that Manni incompetently lost his cash to an
opportunistic vagrant. Lola, confronted with one obstacle after another,
rides an emotional roller coaster in her high-speed efforts to help the
hapless Manni--attempting to extract the cash first from her double-dealing
father (appropriately a bank manager), and then by any means necessary.
From this point nothing goes right for either protagonist, but just when
you think you've figured out the movie, the director introduces a series of
brilliant existential twists that boggle the mind. Tykwer uses rapid camera
movements and innovative pauses to explore the theme of cause and effect.
Accompanied by a pulse-pounding soundtrack, we follow Lola through every
turn and every heartbreak as she and Manni rush forward on a collision
course with fate. There were a variety of original and intelligent films
released in 1999, but perhaps none were as witty and clever as this little
gem--one of the best foreign films of the year. --Jeremy
Storey
