Having a film with Michelle Pfeiffer, Al Pacino and one of my all time favorites - Kate Nelligan, all directed by Garry Marshall (of the Pretty Woman fame) would seem like a no-brainer. I mean, how could things go wrong right? But, boy, did they ever go wrong, and I mean, wrong with a capital W, R, O, N and G! I have gone through seven circles of hell watching this horrible excuse for a film. The only thing that kept me going was not even Pfeiffer or Pacino, but gorgeous and incredibly talented Nelligan. Ever time the film managed to disappoint me, which happened every other minute, I was hoping for another scene with Kate Nelligan. What an actress... simply marvelous. But, everything else, absolutely sucked. The story is non-existent, but one should not even attempt to hint at it because it would automatically result in spoilers - that's how little of a story there is. This sorry excuse for a film starts with Al Pacino trying to get Michelle Pfeiffer interested in him. She has some strange form of a Borderline personality disorder, which may have been interesting to the writer, but it was so poorly portrayed in the film that it did not work at all (because it was not believable and it was presented inaccurately). He, on the other hand, suffers from inexhaustible and unrealistic amount of optimism. I mean, talk about white knight syndrome! He is trying to save her from whatever her inner demons may be, and she is constantly rejecting him. And that goes on and on, and on, and on, and on, and on for some 1 hour and 25 minutes of this film. The attraction-rejection starts around the 10-15 min mark and goes on until the very end. Each rejection is like a 10-15 minute game, so imagine how many times you get to see the same scene played out all over again. Just horrendous. And to think that ANYONE would believe that that type of torture would work as a film? This film has managed to prove to me that Hollywood filmmaking is purely based on chance. I can guarantee that no one who made a decision that this film should be made had used their brains; no, they must have had a pile of screenplays, and they threw a dart and it landed on this steaming pile of dung. And that's why it was made. There is no other option, believe me. I managed to stay until the bitter end, at first hoping for some satisfactory resolution, but later just to test my patience. The ending failed too, but as it was getting closer to it, I figured there will be nothing better in the end than before it. All in all, watch it only to see HOW NOT TO CREATE A STORY. It does not matter that it is supposedly a love story. It could have been any type of a story - it should simply never "evolve" this way, and the characters should never be written the way they were. Dialogues were atrocious. Characters incredibly unbelievable, with exception of Kate Nelligan's (who managed to save it somehow). Story was still born from the start and never moved anywhere. Various random scenes were thrown in for good measure or to try and break up the monotony. The mood is somber and it never changes. The characters have no arc, and nothing goes anywhere. This is one boring, depressing, incredibly dumb, immature, psychotic story put on screen by accident. No one in their right mind would want to make this film I guarantee you. What a shame, because with that cast and money, one would expect at least a mediocre result, but that was not the case here. Not even close to mediocre. Not even bad. Hardly terrible. More like - run away and run fast, and never look back. Just god awful in every way imaginable.

You have to admit when watching this film , Johnny steals everyone's heart's. Who wouldn't like someone like Johnny in their lives? I mean the guy is just really the one to be with. Boy I'm so mind blown of Al Pacino's character, he is just literally romantic. As Bruno Mars has said in his song "Uptown Funk", Michele Pfeiffer definitely is pure gold and with this role, she killed it. She really knows how to act as a emotionally disturbed woman who has been through a lot. I mean, I honestly thought that she was a wimp for keep on saying no to him but, as the story goes, you really go deep on the reasons why she is finding life hard. That's what I like about this movie, it opens up reality such as domestic abuse. It really stands out on the issues we are facing in real life unfortunately. Thankfully Frankie met the wonderful Johnny and her next door neighbour left her abusive partner for his misery. I love this movie, it's so powerful and emotional that I think it should've been deserved an Oscar, not a nominated Golden Globe...

Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer star in this wonderful whimsical tale of romance and second chances. However, the underlying glimpse of differing relationships, their complexities, and the varied loneliness can often escape or even mystify some audiences.One such audience was in the early 90's when this film was in theater where exiting Lake Geneva, Wisconsin viewers were shaking their heads and mumbling about the movie being weird, dry, and boring. Whether influenced by values and relationships that went against their personal beliefs or a failure to comprehend the deeper meanings, this audience overwhelmingly found the film distasteful.Gary Marshal provides a wonderful layering of coincidences that one imagines wasn't in the original stage-play. The opening of the movie has Frankie off to a baptism in her hometown were we glimpse the deepness of her tragic sorrow filled life. The title song playing in the background upbeat sets the tone of possibilities to come as Frankie's train passes the very prison Johnny is being released from at that moment.Al Pacino plays the part of Johnny who is released from prison who heads to New York to find a job and start anew. Frankie, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, is waiting on various customers providing clearer focus on her sometimes-playful side while occasionally drifting into thought as the camera focuses past her and to Johnny in the street approaching the cafe for a job. He lands the job and immediately notices Frankie. Johnny fumbles about a few "relationships" with other women as Frankie is cool as a celery stick at first and the film unravels the layers of the two main and several supporting cast of characters lives.You have the owner of the Apollo Cafe, an old world Grecian who loves his family and soccer, the "sluttish" waitress with a good heart and bad luck in men, the loner waitress who lives alone with her pets, the young studly busboy who can't keep off the phone. At home Frankie has a gay neighbor who is constantly having as much problems in relationships as she is and has been a close friend for years. Frankie's crisis over her feelings for Johnny allows dialog to provide retro-glances of her and her gay neighbors past relationships while revealing the intricacies of their current ones.Johnny is vivacious and people can't help but like him. Through the death of a long-time waitress Frankie becomes intrigued with the compassion of Johnny who never knew her. Even so it takes tenacity and a bit of comical confusion before Frankie ends up on a date with him that she's not sure she agreed to in the first place. Johnny finally thaws Frankie's heart with a dance on that date at a going away party where she refuses to dance a traditional Greek square dance. He dances with another waitress but during a solo in the circle they can't keep their eyes off each other as he dances flirtatiously for her.Nearly ever type of relationship is seen in the film. Frankie watches neighbors from her window revealing yet more relationships from an old couple obviously married for years and in the same old routine to a couple where the woman is being abused. The scenes from Frankie's apartment are truly shot as windows into the lives of others and are accompanied by a lonely melody that turns sour at the moment of the neighbor being abused by her husband then back down as the night fades forward.It is the beaten woman that provides Frankie with the potential to grapple with her own inner demons as she seeks out the lady to try to help in some way. These demons nearly destroy what she and Johnny could have but…you'll have to watch to see how it turned out. I will let you know that the film hooks you like a fish then taunts you, reeling you in and just when you think Johnny is going to land Frankie's heart, she makes a run for it.Timing is wonderful in the film. From the comedy, the tragedy, the romance, and the intrigue of how or will it turn out. The "set" is wonderfully conceived and appropriate for the events to be believable, even the coincidences are cunningly staged to make it a wonderful feel good film and intellectually complementary too.Music is used to focus the mood from lighthearted, almost without hope acoustic music for transitional scenes, to the use of hard-rap to fortify the downtrodden area in which Frankie lives. Lighthearted Grecian melody augments some of the lighter moments. Throughout the film a jazzy composition that highlights some of Claude Debusy's Clare De Lune (their song later in the film) periodically is used during the growth of their courtship. At least four renditions of the song Frankie and Johnny pepper the films romance and comedy.Key to the film's success is the actors' ability to effectively portray their characters every nuance and character as flawlessly as they did. Facial expressions permeate the film to communicate subtly and often overtly to augment the dialog of the scene. Most of the characters of the film find themselves in a rut they call their lives and seem mostly oblivious to it. This helps drive home the deepness of the loneliness of many of the characters and helps to accentuate Johnny's positive never say die attitude.Gary Marshal successfully directs the film and the audience along a roller coaster of emotion. Sometimes angry, sometimes sad, often laughing, and a dash of puzzlement accent the warm and fuzzy that sneaks in. The story may be less popular due to the movie staying true to life in that not all things end as we hope, but shows that hope is worth not giving up on. 1991 must have been a busy year for this wonderful film to lack the awards well deserved by the cast and supporting crew.

I just caught up with this via a national newspaper freebie and I didn't find it a chore to watch in spite of the fact I could have written it myself after the first reel. Thing is I actually like these Broadway rom-coms interchangeable though they may be - here, for example, we were watching a variation on The Owl And The Pussycat, the twist - if you can call it that - being that the guy is in love with the gal from the get-go instead of being beaten into submission by her kookiness. Frankie isn't exactly an almost-hooker but she is a waitress and Johnny isn't exactly a wannabee writer but he does have the better education albeit self-taught. Add strong support in the shape of Kate Nelligan and Nathan Lane and what's not to like.