Film

Frankie & Alice

Name: Frankie & Alice
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: 2010
Cast: Halle Berry, Stellan Skarsgård, Phylicia Rashād, Chandra Wilson, Adrian Holmes

Medical drama

Halle Berry stars as a go-go dancer in 1970s Los Angeles grappling with dissociative identity disorder. Frankie & Alice is a character study that doesn't shy from psychological disturbance, anchored by a committed performance and a genuine curiosity about trauma's aftermath. It's for viewers willing to sit with discomfort in service of understanding a fractured person.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a performance-driven character study where the question of who is actually speaking keeps the tension high, and you don't mind a mood that stays bruised and intimate.

Skip it if you want a loose, fast-moving thriller, since this is a slow, talky study that leans on its therapy-room scenes more than on momentum.

What it asks of you: Expect a patient, interior film of about an hour and forty minutes, where attention pays off in small shifts of expression rather than in set-pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend2015

A musical dramedy about a woman unraveling her own psychology through song. Like Frankie & Alice, it treats mental illness seriously while maintaining the complexity and humor of a full human being, not a diagnosis.

But The musical numbers take commitment to enjoy, and the tone wobbles between comedy and genuine pain in ways that don't always land cleanly.

Sybil1976

A landmark TV movie about dissociative identity disorder that practically invented the cinematic language for depicting it. Essential viewing if you want to understand how this story has been told before, and what's changed.

But It's from 1976 and plays with a certain clinical distance that modern viewers sometimes find dated. The pacing is slow by current standards.

Girl, Interrupted1999

Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder in a portrait of psychiatric hospitalization and the messy, defiant psychology of young women. Like Frankie & Alice, it's grounded in specific performance and refuses simple answers.

But The film has been criticized for glamorizing mental illness in ways that don't age perfectly. It can feel like a '90s period piece in the worst way.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Frankie & Alice

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Voices2014

Both films center a single protagonist whose internal fracturing is the entire story, refusing to make the person secondary to their diagnosis. Both demand committed lead performances.

Ryan Reynolds as a man with schizophrenia whose pet dog and cat talk to him—one urging kindness, one urging violence. It's a pitch-black comedy-horror that treats mental illness with dark humor rather than solemnity, finding strange tenderness in the chaos.

But The tonal whiplash is severe and intentional. If you need films to maintain consistent emotional register, this one will feel unmoored and possibly offensive.

Split2017

M. Night Shyamalan's tense psychological thriller about a man with 23 distinct personalities holding three women hostage. A masterclass in building dread and committed acting, even if the premise is ethically thorny.

But It's been criticized for perpetuating the myth that DID is inherently violent or dangerous. The film conflates mental illness with danger in ways that feel irresponsible.

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire2009

Mo'Nique and Gabourey Sidibe in an unflinching account of abuse, survival, and the possibility of recovery. Raw and specific in its emotional texture, with performances that refuse to sentimentalize suffering.

But It's brutally difficult to watch. The film doesn't offer easy catharsis, and some sequences will genuinely wound you.

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire poster

Mulholland Drive2001

David Lynch's Los Angeles nightmare about fragmented identity and the unreliable nature of memory. If you're drawn to stories about people losing themselves, this is the midnight-hour masterpiece.

But It's deliberately opaque and resists clear interpretation. If you want answers, Lynch is not offering them, and some find that pretentious rather than enriching.

Black Swan2010

Natalie Portman as a perfectionist ballet dancer experiencing psychological disintegration. Darren Aronofsky films the mind breaking down in formally inventive, sometimes nauseating ways. A descent into obsession.

But The film is so focused on visual spectacle that the character sometimes feels secondary to the experience. Some find it more style than substance.

Take Shelter2011

Michael Shannon in a quiet, devastating portrait of a man building an apocalyptic shelter while his family questions his mental state. It asks the terrifying question: what if he's right? What if he's not?

But The pacing is deliberately slow and meditative. If you need plot momentum and answers, this film's ambiguity will frustrate you.

Play Misty for Me1971

Both are set in specific time periods (1970s LA) and use the protagonist's awareness of their own fragility as the emotional core. Both treat psychological crisis as intimate rather than sensational.

Clint Eastwood's directorial debut: a radio DJ stalked by an obsessive listener whose grip on reality is deteriorating. A tense psychological thriller with genuine unease, grounded in character and quiet terror rather than spectacle.

But It's a 1971 thriller, so the gender politics and assumptions about women's psychology will read as dated. The stalker is written with a kind of pity that modern viewers may find uncomfortable.

The Jacket2005

Like Frankie & Alice, it centers on a marginalized protagonist (veteran, dancer) fighting to maintain selfhood within medical/institutional systems designed to contain rather than heal them.

Adrien Brody as a Gulf War vet hospitalized in a psychiatric facility and subjected to an experimental treatment involving sensory deprivation. A strange, dreamlike film that visualizes trauma and dissociation through formally inventive cinematography.

But It's willfully surreal and elliptical. The narrative logic is intentionally muddled, and some will find it self-indulgently obscure rather than moving.