Dear Frankie (2004)

This story is about a son and his mother and his fake father. The son does not utter words because he is deaf. He keeps mailing with his father. Actually, the person who replies to his mail is not his father but his mother. She escapes from her husband because of his violence. The son, Frankie, loses his memory of childhood, therefore she plays a good father who is a sailor in the mails. One day, she replies to her son that his father gets the bay near the home. The mother comes up with employing a man who can pretend to be the father.After watching this film, to be frank, I like this so much. The reason why it became one of my obsessions is its heartwarming story. I cannot tell you the ending, though, I love the ending because when I watched the scene I could feel the affection between not only, of course, Frankie and his mother but also the son and the fake father. Their performances, especially the role of Frankie, are excellent. I was so moved that I want to recommend this film to my friends.

How could the writer and the director believe in and write such an absurd story is beyond understanding. Dear Frankie relies on a premise that has almost no credibility, Lizzie's action being totally devoid of sens. How could she act like that and still think that it's good for her kid ? Hard to validate this situation.Admitting that point, the script still lacks substance and dynamism. Certain aspects could have been much more exposed, such as Gerard Butler's character who is surprisingly under-developed when he could have brought so much more to the story.Emily Mortimer, as often happens, is irreproachable and almost single-handedly carries this movie.

There is an argument around that the Brits don't do melodrama in film very well, preferring to to cram it all into their soaps. The wry humour strain is there from Whisky Galore to Local Hero, bleak urban blight like Ratcatcher and Red Road abounds, even feel good movies like Billy Elliot and The Full Monty have their day. But melodrama? Best left to Almodovar and other foreigners, it seems.Then along comes Dear Frankie. The film takes a while to win you over. The fag buying scene, the incorrigible granny, the librarian fawning over the boy when she discovers his disability - it all seems a tad indulgent, a bit too forced. But Frankie's charisma grows on you, and the dilemma his Mum has created for herself bubbles with intrigue. Butler's air of menace as the brooding stranger is introduced at just the right time and perfectly counter-balances the rainbow-tinted tone till that point. The plot is only incredulous to anyone who has never been part of a family and knows nothing of how absurd the problems they create for themselves can be.The soundtrack can be a bit smothering at times, and the dying hospital patient has far too much energy, muscle tone and rage for a dying man, but these are minor quibbles. Dear Frankie is an engaging tale, well-acted and unashamedly melodramatic, in the best sense. I read the logline and rolled my eyes, but in the end gave up a few well-earned tears. There is enough dark, tortured Glaswegian angst on celluloid (and in my family, for that matter) to satisfy aficionados of that strain of film-making. It is too cynical to suggest we don't have room for the likes of a Dear Frankie.Those of us who are parents, or who are brave enough to remember, will admit that children know a helluva lot more than we give them credit for. That is the message that Dear Frankie ultimately delivers, and triumphantly, too. Selling Glaswegian melodrama could not have been easy. Pullingit off, harder still. Bravo.

I saw Dear Frankie recently and never having heard about it, was pleased that TV Ontario had televised this little gem of a motion picture. On this side of the Atlantic, we often miss out on some of the better movies that come out of the British Isles and this one is no exception. All the actors are excellent and the atmosphere of the Scottish coastal town has a wonderful sense of location, grim and majestic at the same time.The movie is realistic and heart-warming with an understated sense of humor. The child in the role of Frankie, performed by Jack McElhone, is an absolute delight. He is bright and imaginative child with a severe hearing impairment but not completely deaf (he is using a hearing aid). Yet he can stand up to the bullying tactics of the other kids at school. His mother Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) is coping with the responsibilities of being a single mother, while longing to find a husband. The surrogate father (Gerard Butler) seems to be a natural as the missing link in the family unit, while Lizzie faces the torture of dealing with the real father. The rest of the cast, including Lizzie's mother and her best friend, are all worthy of mention.The ending is bittersweet but hopeful. It is rare to find a movie that tells a story so well and is yet so down-to-earth. This is fine movie. Don't miss it.