Pick This Flick 1-Run Lola Run

Starting today, am gonna start a weekly column in my blog- "Pick this flick". You can expect to read about an interesting movie, not necessarily new, every week. I'll start off the column with one of the most unconventional movies I've ever watched- The German movie 'Run Lola Run'('Lola Rennt' is the original German title). Directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola, this is one hell of a non-stop roller coaster ride for 1 hour and 20 minutes. 'Pulsating' is what I'll say, if asked to describe the film in one word. The film starts with Manni, Lola's boyfriend messing up his job to transfer 100,000 Deutsche Mark to his mafia boss. He forgets to take the bag as he gets out of a suburban train. A streetside beggar goes away with the money. Manni makes a phone call to Lola asking her to rescue his life. He will have to pay the money to his boss in 20 minutes, else he'll get killed. She promises to somehow get him the money. Thats when the exhilarating ride kickstarts.

Lola starts her incredible run to save her boyfriend. The film proceeds on to show 3 different scenarios and what are the results by proceeding in each of the scenarios. Am not going to write anything about it, as its better to experience it yourself than be told how the experience is. In each of the 3 different scenarios, the timing and actions change a bit. The end result of this small changes are very big and beyond our imaginations. A small change in the way a person run can cause unimaginable changes in the lives of the people passing by. We can see small echoes of the popular 'chaos theory' and 'butterfly effect' in this. There's not a single moment of slow frames in the film and you'll find yourself running alongwith the script at breakneck speed. A thumping soundtrack accompanies the whole length of the movie. The soundtrack, heavily loaded with trance, is one of the many charming aspects of this movie. I've also heard somebody mentioning about the use of the colour red. Its there in almost every scene, right from the lady's red hair to the red ambulance. The movie raises so many questions about time, destiny and life. But in the end, it all boils down to a question of 'What if'-What if I had not bumped into him? What if I didn't take a left turn? This movie shows the immense possibilities of life in its simplest way possible. Go, get the DVD, jump on the couch and start running with LOLA...

your crusader Praveen