SOURCE: O'Brien, Tom. “The Life and Death of It: New Spring Films.” Commonweal 115, no. 7 (8 April 1988): 210-12.

In the following excerpt, O'Brien discusses a selection of recent thrillers, including Frantic, and notes that Polanski's film lacks suspense, wit, and originality.

Some recent movies live by understatement, but some die too. Frantic, for example, belies its title. It's a tired thriller from Roman Polanski, who has actually made many fine films (Macbeth, Chinatown, Tess, Knife in the Water). But Frantic is just dead in the water. At first Polanski tries to set a realistic tone—so steady and unmelodramatically monotonous is the early pace. Harrison Ford also manages some presence as a doctor whose wife (Betty Buckley) disappears while they visit Paris. Polanski tracks him doggedly trying to make sense of the mystery.

Predictably, all the usual suspects show up: drug dealers, Arab terrorists, CIA agents, and a very sexy...