THE STORY – A man serving a life sentence takes an in-prison job caring for infirm prisoners suffering from memory loss. The start of the job was for his parole, but it turns into a deep emotional and transformative relationship.
THE CAST – Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rob Morgan, Residente, Indira Varma, Rosalind Eleazar
THE TEAM – Petra Volpe (Director/Writer), Esther Bernstorff (co-writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 95 Minutes
We’ve seen countless prison dramas over the years, focusing on all aspects of life behind bars, but rarely has end-of-life care been explored. Even outside the confines of prison, society never really wants to think about what will happen to us all as we age. Who will care for us? Who will help feed us, wipe us, and hold our hands as our minds slip away? Fresh off her Oscar-shortlisted film, “Late Shift,” Petra Volpe’s English-language debut, “Frank & Louis,” zeroes in on dementia care for incarcerated individuals, as tragic a subject as you might expect. While the movie doesn’t ever really deliver on anything unexpected, it’s an undeniably moving drama.
Kingsley Ben-Adir stars as Frank, a man serving life in prison for a murder her committed as a teenager. Though he still hopes and prepares for the possibility of parole, he’s been in jail for nearly twenty years. That time has weighed on him, forcing him to reckon with everything he’s lost. After a transfer to a new prison, Frank accepts a job caring for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients in the wing. He’s soon tasked with buddying up to Louis (Rob Morgan), a tough inmate who has only recently begun to show symptoms of his mind fading. But he’s not interested in being friends with Frank. He doesn’t need the help…yet.
The challenge with any prison drama, aside from the already crowded genre, is how internal the films need to be. Without the busyness of a complicated plot or multiple locations, we’re left with only the inner lives of these men. In “Frank & Louis,” neither of the title characters is prone to opening up. Frank’s hesitancy to show a softer side of himself makes him isolated, frustrated with the world, and angry at himself. Louis is used to being in control and wants to show the younger inmate that he doesn’t need the help, until his disease starts to take that choice away. Both performances are sensitive and subtle, yet the film struggles to pull back the curtain on the men. Why is Louis so opposed to Frank helping him? Why is Frank so isolated? We know he’s placing his hopes on parole, but we don’t get an understanding of his emotional state after so long in prison. Even though visits with his sister and recounting his original crime fill in the backstory, they don’t peel back the layers into how he’s processing it all. “Frank & Louis” takes us through all the motions of the story, but doesn’t do enough to let us inside and truly understand these men.
More than anything, it’s devastating to witness all of these dementia patients live out their last days in such loneliness. As Louis fades, his memory takes him back to days outside the walls. In his less-lucid moments, he doesn’t understand why he’s there, why he can’t leave, and why he’s all alone. Frank wonders why these men are still in prison. “Isn’t part of punishment understanding that you’re being punished?” If they aren’t a danger anymore and can’t comprehend their situation, why keep them locked up? End of life is dehumanizing enough, no matter where you are when it comes, but to see these men fade into shells of themselves, you can’t help but get angry. Is this protecting society? This is where Morgan’s performance, in particular, shines. He’s able to capture both sides of this man’s mind, the hardened criminal and the scared old man, with grace and earnestness.
Still, Volpe’s direction and the stoic pace keep Frank and Louis at arm’s length, never truly letting us engage with them on a deeper level. While Louis’s walls come down as his mind slips away, Frank’s never do. Without truly getting inside these characters, we’re left with the overly familiar beats of better prison dramas. The parole hearings, fighting with other inmates, and loneliness in the middle of the night; while those are all legitimate aspects of prison life to explore, the lack of depth surrounding them makes the film feel all the more rote. Despite this, Ben-Adir and Morgan deserve praise for their thoughtful performances in “Frank & Louis,” an ultimately moving exploration of a meaningful subject that we don’t acknowledge enough.
