Gripping story with well-crafted characters

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

You have to admit when watching this film , Johnny steals everyone's heart's. Who wouldn't like someone like Johnny in their lives? I mean the guy is just really the one to be with. Boy I'm so mind blown of Al Pacino's character, he is just literally romantic. As Bruno Mars has said in his song "Uptown Funk", Michele Pfeiffer definitely is pure gold and with this role, she killed it. She really knows how to act as a emotionally disturbed woman who has been through a lot. I mean, I honestly thought that she was a wimp for keep on saying no to him but, as the story goes, you really go deep on the reasons why she is finding life hard. That's what I like about this movie, it opens up reality such as domestic abuse. It really stands out on the issues we are facing in real life unfortunately. Thankfully Frankie met the wonderful Johnny and her next door neighbour left her abusive partner for his misery. I love this movie, it's so powerful and emotional that I think it should've been deserved an Oscar, not a nominated Golden Globe...

Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer star in this wonderful whimsical tale of romance and second chances. However, the underlying glimpse of differing relationships, their complexities, and the varied loneliness can often escape or even mystify some audiences.One such audience was in the early 90's when this film was in theater where exiting Lake Geneva, Wisconsin viewers were shaking their heads and mumbling about the movie being weird, dry, and boring. Whether influenced by values and relationships that went against their personal beliefs or a failure to comprehend the deeper meanings, this audience overwhelmingly found the film distasteful.Gary Marshal provides a wonderful layering of coincidences that one imagines wasn't in the original stage-play. The opening of the movie has Frankie off to a baptism in her hometown were we glimpse the deepness of her tragic sorrow filled life. The title song playing in the background upbeat sets the tone of possibilities to come as Frankie's train passes the very prison Johnny is being released from at that moment.Al Pacino plays the part of Johnny who is released from prison who heads to New York to find a job and start anew. Frankie, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, is waiting on various customers providing clearer focus on her sometimes-playful side while occasionally drifting into thought as the camera focuses past her and to Johnny in the street approaching the cafe for a job. He lands the job and immediately notices Frankie. Johnny fumbles about a few "relationships" with other women as Frankie is cool as a celery stick at first and the film unravels the layers of the two main and several supporting cast of characters lives.You have the owner of the Apollo Cafe, an old world Grecian who loves his family and soccer, the "sluttish" waitress with a good heart and bad luck in men, the loner waitress who lives alone with her pets, the young studly busboy who can't keep off the phone. At home Frankie has a gay neighbor who is constantly having as much problems in relationships as she is and has been a close friend for years. Frankie's crisis over her feelings for Johnny allows dialog to provide retro-glances of her and her gay neighbors past relationships while revealing the intricacies of their current ones.Johnny is vivacious and people can't help but like him. Through the death of a long-time waitress Frankie becomes intrigued with the compassion of Johnny who never knew her. Even so it takes tenacity and a bit of comical confusion before Frankie ends up on a date with him that she's not sure she agreed to in the first place. Johnny finally thaws Frankie's heart with a dance on that date at a going away party where she refuses to dance a traditional Greek square dance. He dances with another waitress but during a solo in the circle they can't keep their eyes off each other as he dances flirtatiously for her.Nearly ever type of relationship is seen in the film. Frankie watches neighbors from her window revealing yet more relationships from an old couple obviously married for years and in the same old routine to a couple where the woman is being abused. The scenes from Frankie's apartment are truly shot as windows into the lives of others and are accompanied by a lonely melody that turns sour at the moment of the neighbor being abused by her husband then back down as the night fades forward.It is the beaten woman that provides Frankie with the potential to grapple with her own inner demons as she seeks out the lady to try to help in some way. These demons nearly destroy what she and Johnny could have but…you'll have to watch to see how it turned out. I will let you know that the film hooks you like a fish then taunts you, reeling you in and just when you think Johnny is going to land Frankie's heart, she makes a run for it.Timing is wonderful in the film. From the comedy, the tragedy, the romance, and the intrigue of how or will it turn out. The "set" is wonderfully conceived and appropriate for the events to be believable, even the coincidences are cunningly staged to make it a wonderful feel good film and intellectually complementary too.Music is used to focus the mood from lighthearted, almost without hope acoustic music for transitional scenes, to the use of hard-rap to fortify the downtrodden area in which Frankie lives. Lighthearted Grecian melody augments some of the lighter moments. Throughout the film a jazzy composition that highlights some of Claude Debusy's Clare De Lune (their song later in the film) periodically is used during the growth of their courtship. At least four renditions of the song Frankie and Johnny pepper the films romance and comedy.Key to the film's success is the actors' ability to effectively portray their characters every nuance and character as flawlessly as they did. Facial expressions permeate the film to communicate subtly and often overtly to augment the dialog of the scene. Most of the characters of the film find themselves in a rut they call their lives and seem mostly oblivious to it. This helps drive home the deepness of the loneliness of many of the characters and helps to accentuate Johnny's positive never say die attitude.Gary Marshal successfully directs the film and the audience along a roller coaster of emotion. Sometimes angry, sometimes sad, often laughing, and a dash of puzzlement accent the warm and fuzzy that sneaks in. The story may be less popular due to the movie staying true to life in that not all things end as we hope, but shows that hope is worth not giving up on. 1991 must have been a busy year for this wonderful film to lack the awards well deserved by the cast and supporting crew.

OK, i do love romantic comedies and i'm not ashamed of it. And this one is really, really lovely. It's a little bitter but with a nice sense of houmour as well. Michelle Pfeiffer is delicate as always and Al Pacino... well... everything he does is so great!!! Even if he plays a role in an unpretentious comedy like this one. It sounds a bit strange for me the fact i like Pacino so much, 'cause he's the most academic actor we have nowadays (together with De Niro, off course), but he's got such a charisma that makes me forget that man is the Actor's Studio itself. Anyway if you want to spend a lighthearted evening, Frankie & Johnny is the right movie.

This is definitely one of my all time favorite movies. It has an amazing positive atmosphere, great romance and a good handful of funny moments. But it also has serious stuff in it that connects to the realism of love. It shows the damage of what love does to people and when the right person comes along to make it better.Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) has had bad experiences with love in the past and it causes her to retreat when Johnny, (Al Pacino) an ex con newly hired in the restaurant where she works, asks her out. With the help of her friends, she agrees to go on a date with him. But the more their romance blossoms, the more Frankie becomes scared of being hurt again.There are important things to learn from this movie. If you found someone really special, don't let the mistakes of the past ruin it for you. The film itself has a lot of references to songs which makes it even more romantic. Romantic dramas often end in tears, but this one doesn't. It's truthful and simple. 10 out of 10.