'Frida' - still worth catching

Frida

Director: Julie Taymor

Cast: Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Ashley Judd, Antonio Banderas, Edward Norton, Saffron Burrows

Cert: 18.

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is, for many women, a heroine of epic proportions.

Here, her story is brought to the screen in a film which succeeds only in part. It is a well-intentioned effort, though, and the formidable cast does its best to do the subject full justice; perhaps, in the end, Frida was so complex a person that the task is too great.

The story fails to fully understand just who Frida was, just how important her work was and why she remains such a strong female icon. It merely touches on many of the more important aspects of its subject and leaves so much unexamined.

The cast does make a worthy effort in a film clearly brought to the screen with a great deal of affection for the subject, but we are still unsure of what made Frida tick.

A disappointment, then, but one still worth catching; failure can still be glorious.

Star Rating: 2/5.