Movie #6: Dear Frankie

#6 -- 1/28/06
MOVIE: DEAR FRANKIE
DRAMA
YEAR: 2004
CAST: Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler and others
RATING: A+
WHERE SEEN: Home
SEEN WITH: John and Kristin
REASON FOR VIEWING: Ebert and Roeper review, Scottish setting, Gerard Butler
SETTING: Present Day Scotland
SYNOPSIS: Nine-year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they've run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands. Then Frankie discovers the real HMS Accra is arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must find the perfect stranger to play Frankie's father for just one day...

COMMENTS: This is my favorite kind of movie – a quiet, sensitive film that hasn’t gotten a lot of hoopla, that not a lot of people have heard about. I heard it reviewed by Roger Ebert when it first came out but forgot about it then saw it on my Netflix recommendations and knew I needed to see this right away.

I read somewhere this movie was described as “wise and wondrous”. That is an understatement. This tender, poignant, sweet movie is so perfect I can’t for the life of me understand why it hasn’t been talked about more or why it didn’t win all sorts of awards. The scene with Gerard Butler and Emily Mortimer walking along the quay after the dance had me in tears as Frankie’s Mom opens up to the stranger she has hired to be Frankie’s “Dad”.

And as if all this weren’t enough – it has the magnificent Gerard Butler. This is a movie I will always remember fondly – like an old, dear friend. In addition, it has a wonderful soundtrack. A movie that can move me to tears. It doesn't get much better than this.