Run Lola Run

An audacious, engrossing piece of work, Run Lola Run follows Franka Potente’s title character as she attempts to save her boyfriend’s (Moritz Bleibtreu’s Manni) life by sprinting towards his location. Filmmaker Tom Tykwer, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a propulsive and consistently enthralling endeavor that benefits from its top-notch performances and proliferation of surprising attributes, as the movie, which runs a brisk, almost too short 80 minutes, progresses through an inventive narrative that’s been adorned with a whole host of compelling encounters and digressions – including frequent animation breaks and a recurring (and fun) bit involving rapid-fire flash-forwards into the lives of bystanders passed by Lola. It is, as such, not surprising to note that the potentially repetitive bent of the movie’s storyline, which traverses through three possible outcomes of Lola’s quest, never becomes as problematic as one might’ve feared, with the completely satisfying climactic stretch ensuring that the whole thing concludes on a positive, rewarding note – thus cementing Run Lola Run‘s place as an above-average thriller that’s more (much more) than its admittedly eye-catching gimmick.

***1/2 out of ****