A gifted Las Vegas chef (Michael Shannon) falls deeply in love with an aspiring fashion designer (Imogen Poots). Their relationship is threatened, however, when he becomes suspicious of her fidelity, arousing a driven and self-destructive part of his personality. A muted and brief neo-noir (it runs around one hour and 20 minutes sans end credits), Frank & Lola tries to capitalize on a few potent virtues—a brooding leading man who cannot help but captivate in Shannon, a plot predominantly unfolding in a pair of picturesque cities (Vegas, Paris) at night—but the material is ultimately thin and unconvincing. The cavalcade of erotic and psychological twists is hamstrung by the fact neither title character is well-developed nor do they share detectable chemistry, either in love or spite. There is a far richer and more provocative film with a similar central idea—a man toppled and set adrift into the abyss by revelations regarding his lover's sexuality—and Stanley Kubrick filmed it shortly before his death.

C