levelFILM Review- Framing John DeLorean

As Alec Baldwin sits in the make up chair made up as John DeLorean for the first time he facetimes his wife to show her how he looks. She asks what he is doing, Baldwin explains that they are doing re-enactment footage of DeLorean's escapades shot as a movie then cut into documentary footage about DeLorean and what he went through. Baldwin also explains his process of portraying a character. Baldwin in the past saw him as a manipulator but playing him you get into his mind and play who the character thinks he is.

Directors Sheena M. Joyce and Don Argott touch on the many failed attempts to turn DeLorean's life. The story has all of the elements: Ambitious genius, fashion model wife, two adorable kids. DeLorean was a  maverick that took on big business, plus cocaine and an F.B.I. sting. All during the return of Conservatism under Regan's war on drugs and the rise of the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher in Britain.

The narrative starts with DeLorean as a promising engineer at G.M. making an impression then given the option to head of any division he chose Pontiac the one in the most trouble. There he went against the grain to birth the muscle car the G.T.O leading to increased profits for G.M. and a seat at the table on the Executive 14th floor. However, the old guard wanted him out which occurred in 1973.

From there the story moves to the development of his dream car the DMC-12. Hiring his chief engineer, raising funding then building the vehicle in a plant in troubled Belfast because the British government gave him the most money. That was the first of many instances where chasing funding lead to bad decisions and eventually to that L.A. hotel room drug deal with the F.B.I.

Framing John DeLorean has duality even in its title. DeLorean maintains that he was entrapped by the F.B.I. a version of the facts that a jury believed in is 1984 trail. It also stands for an attempt to get a picture of the man who had many different personas but at his core as Baldwin states he just perverted some dream that he had. That, in the end, had a devastating effect on himself, his marriage and ultimately his children.

*** Out of 4.

Framing John DeLorean | Sheena M. Joyce / Don Argott | U.S.A. | 2019 | 109 Minutes.

Tags: Detroit, G.M. Pontiac, G.T.O., Firebird, Californina, Stardom, DMC -12, Belfast, War on Drugs, Cocaine, Sting, Trial.