Fran

1985

Action / Drama

1
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 133 133

woman director

Plot summary

Fran, a single mother, is selflessly devoted to her children. But something is lacking in her life, and that something is the love of a man her own age. Her efforts to juggle a love life with her home life are largely unsuccessful.

Director

Glenda Hambly Photo
Glenda Hambly

Top cast

Alan Fletcher Photo
Alan Fletcher as Jeff
Noni Hazlehurst Photo
Noni Hazlehurst as Fran
Annie Byron Photo
Annie Byron as Marge
Danny Adcock Photo
Danny Adcock as Ray
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
913.38 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds ...
1.65 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by petershelleyau

call her irresponsible, but nobody could love her children as much as ...

Australian writer/director Glenda Hambly presents the title character, flaws and all, a mother who acts to effectively abandon her children in favor of a romantic life. However what saves Fran from condemnation is the great empathy created by the performance of Noni Hazelhurst. Hazelhurst isn't afraid to present Fran as stupid or ugly or child-like, her desperation highlighted in the scene where she begs her husband not to leave her alone with her children in suburbia. She also makes Fran's anger at the child welfare agency she calls the "Department of Good Intentions" funny, revealing an arrested development based on her own history of being a foster child.Hambly's sad tale portrays the repetitive nature of abuse, with Fran acting the same way her mother did, and the accusation that her new boyfriend Jeff (Alan Fletcher) having abused Fran's eldest daughter Lisa (Narelle Simpson) aligned with Fran telling us that Jeff's father abused him. In the final image of Lisa, Hambly also suggests that she too will continue the cycle. The treatment stops us from viewing Fran as a tragic victim, since we don't see her trying to work whilst her children are at school, when her pride makes her refuse her to accept government support. The misanthropy of Fran's neighbor, Marg (Annie Byron, also an abandoned mother, doesn't progress into lesbianism, but whilst Marg's assessment of the men in Fran's life is correct, it still reads as a sign of resignation by Marg. Misguided Fran's priorities may be, but the idea that she needs a individual life apart from her children is valid.The lighting in a fight scene is perhaps too dark to conceal the violence, but later Hazelhurst looks incredibly beautiful in a moment of reaction to Jeff.
Reviewed by youngadam-4 3 / 10

soap opera drama

This director really is like a low rent ken Loach/mike Leigh. Unfortunately, FRAN, has none of the cinematic prowess or complex politics that make the English masters rise above the kitchen sink. The film is nothing more than TELEVISION drama. Turgid script, stolid story arc, overwrought drama. The characters speak their truth in a way that is unrealistic and terribly daytime television. The writer aims so hard to invest complex stakes in the story that the characters are forced (like puppets) to react dramatically to the events. Because of this reliance on the motivating stakes of the story, the characters have no internal world. And certainly the cinematic world created is nothing short of ordinary. Unfortunate that the creators of this stinker are now at the helm of deciding the future of Australian cinema. Perhaps therein lies the problem with the sort of scripts and directors being encouraged by Australian funding bodies.
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