Frankie & Alice: My Review

Movies about black people struggling with mental illness are few and far between. The only two that come to recent memory are Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story and Abducted:The Carlina White Story. Frankie and Alice is the true story of a go go dancer named Frankie (Halle Berry) who has multiple personality disorder. The two personalities wreaking havoc with Frankie's life are Genius, a 7 year old child, and a racist Southern belle by the name of Alice. Things come to a head for Frankie when "Alice" emerges during a tryst with a co worker where she attacks him. This event leads to the fateful meeting with Dr. Oz (Stellan Skarsgard), who is determined to help Frankie with her illness.

The movie is flawed, especially when it comes to setting up the reason as to why Frankie is suffering from this disorder and the role her mother (Phylicia Rashad) plays into it. Frankie also has a sister played by Chandra Wilson of Grey's Anatomy fame whose role is so small it might as well be nonexistent.

As someone who focuses in on the screenplay, I feel that the script if it had of delved more into Frankie's family, or present day Frankie who is living with her illness and is now married to a psychiatrist would have made the movie just that more interesting. The performances (with Halle being the standout) were fine, but the story needed some tweaking.  Do I recommend this as date night fare? Not really, but if it premieres on Lifetime or Netflix streaming definitely check it out!