The 2010 psychological drama “Frankie & Alice” from FreeStyle Releasing was directed by Geoffrey Sax with the screenplay written by Cheryl Edwards, Marko King, Mary King, Jonathan Watters, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse, based on a story developed by Philip Goldberg from the research case study of Frank Murdoch bythe late Dr. Oscar Janiger. Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Halle Berry, Matt Frewer, Adrian Holmes, Phylicia Rashad, Chandra Wilson, Melanie Papalia, James Kirk, Emily Tennant, Vanessa Morgan, Kira Clavell, Scott Lyster, Andrew Francis, Joanne Baron and Brian Markinson.
Frankie Murdoch (Halle Berry) knows how to keep the customers happy at the Go-Go club in Los Angeles where she works. But behind the sexy moves and smiles she is hiding a terrible secret of a trauma that happened to her many years ago which shattered her mind and has slowly been becoming more difficult to control. Everyone is aware of her erratic behavior, but it all seems normal for the 1970’s lifestyle. The moods swings are barely noticed anymore, but now more frequently she has begun to wake up in strange places without being able to remember how she got there and she is getting scared of what might happen or what she might do.
She wasn’t always this way, at one time she was a bright talented young woman, growing up in the South in the 1950’s. But now she is three people; herself a young black woman, “Genius” a seven year old girl who tries to protect her and “Alice,” a bigoted white woman who despises her. After being found running in traffic, the police take Frankie to the hospital for observation. She can’t remember anything and is totally confused about what is going to happen next. One of the attending psychiatrists Dr. Joseph “Oz” Oswald (Stellan Skarsgård) becomes interested in her case and begins to treat her.
As Dr. Oz begins working with Frankie, the different personalities begin to tell their stories, but it’s not smooth sailing; there are other characters in this personal drama. Frankie’s mother Edna Murdoch (Phylicia Rashad) knows what happened to her daughter but is at a loss to help her, and her sister Maxine (Chandra Wilson) has accepted the fact that her sister is crazy. But Dr. Oz believes that her multiple personality disorder can be healed. Battling a system that had not come to terms with mental illness, Dr. Oz became Frankie Murdoch’s ally in the fight to regain control over her life.
