"Frida" has nearly everything you could want in a biographical drama. Not only does it feature a great cast, but it also has an interesting subject for its focus and style to spare.
What it lacks, however, is the cohesiveness of story and the necessary dramatic and emotional heft that would have ensured the film didn't come off as superficial. Also, the project could have used a director who was more interested in telling a good story than having a good-looking production.
Julie Taymor's gimmick-heavy direction draws attention away from the performances and the material itself. As a result, "Frida" emerges as an artistic portrait that tells us nothing new or significant about its subject.
Still, it does feature an Academy Award-caliber performance from its co-producer, Salma Hayek, who stars as the title character, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Hayek plays the character in nearly every stage of her life. We first see Frida as a teenager, the time in her life when she first encountered famed muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), and during which she suffered a serious spinal injury in a trolley car accident.
Both stayed with her throughout her life — Frida eventually married the womanizing Rivera and remained with him for the rest of her life, and despite recovering from the accident, she suffered great pain and had other medical problems because of the accident.
The film also briefly addresses the dalliance between Frida and Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush); the deposed communist leader who stayed with them while living in exile in Mexico.
While the character development here is sketchy at best, Hayek is both convincing and magnetic as Kahlo, and makes the film watchable. Molina's charismatic turn as Rivera very nearly matches Hayek's Frida.
The supporting performances are not nearly as good, though, especially the woefully miscast Rush, who once again attempts a foreign accent with disastrous results.
"Frida" is rated R for copious female nudity, scenes of simulated sex and sexual contact, occasional use of strong sex-related profanity and sexual slang terms, violence (vehicular, as well as a bar brawl and gunplay), brief gore, brief drugs (tranquilizer and painkiller use). Running time: 118 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com