The irresistible frenetic kinetic energy of Run Lola Run is established immediately in an opening sequence that pulls the audience right into the movie. Director Tom Tykwer employs a series of directorial tricks so incessantly dynamic that it's easy to forget that he's also crassly manipulating us.
Lola's beau, the rather simple Manni has misplaced 100,000 Marks he is supposed to deliver in 20 minutes to his boss. If he can't come up with the dough, he'll be killed. Manni calls Lola, begging her for help, and Lola--whose moped was just stolen--sets off on a 20-minute race against time. Her fiery hair blazing, Lola (Franka Potente) careens across the screen, bouncing from one near-disaster to another, in her quest to save Manni from his grisly fate. Shot in real time, Tykwer borrows a gimmick seen recently in films such as Groundhog Day and Sliding Doors, as once Lola's twenty-minute race is over, he allows his protagonists to relive the events. By making ever-so-slight adjustments in Lola's game of beat the clock, Tykwer presents a cinematic version of the chaos theory. By setting in motion the same action, but with slightly different starting conditions, the characters come to completely different outcomes--not only Manni and Lola, but all the people they meet over the course of those twenty minutes. The three-part structure creates the film's fractured karma, as we see how little changes in people's actions, words and behaviour can lead to profound changes in their destinies.
Run Lola Run is enriched by the work of the charismatic Portente, who is the fulcrum on which all three stories are levered. However, in the auteur tradition, Run Lola Run is foremost a director's film, and watching Tykwer at work is like watching a child at play with a new toy; at nearly every moment we share the percolating joy of his discovery. Tykwer's marriage of camera, music and story creates an effervescent display of cinematic emotion. Appropriately, while the film pulsates with visceral vitality, it is at its weakest when trying to develop intellectual depth. Specifically, the flashbacks of the conversations between Lola and Manni show us a couple not so much engaged in a discussion as tossing around ideas for our amusement.
This is invigoratingly elemental filmmaking. A giant pinball game of a movie, Run Lola Run may be superficial and relatively meaningless, but it sure is great fun.
