Dear Frankie Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)March 5th, 2005
DEAR FRANKIE
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Lizzie (Emily Mortimer, "Young Adam") has been on the run from her husband for over seven years, moving from place to place with her mother Nell (Brenda Vaccaro lookalike Mary Riggans) and nine year-old son. Having found a place above a Glasgow fish and chips shop, Lizzie enrolls Frankie (Jack McElhone, "Young Adam"), who is deaf, into a new school and begins working at Marie's (Pamela Reed lookalike Sharon Small, "About a Boy") restaurant. Lizzie has created a fairy tale father for her son, a man who corresponds from a ship in letters that begin "Dear Frankie."
Screenwriter Andrea Gibb has fashioned a tender tale about the bond between mother and son, which director (and cinematographer) Shona Auerbach, in her feature debut, allows to build at its own determined pace. The result is a lovely, somewhat melancholy little film with a powerful ending and a lingering mood of wistfulness.
Nell believes that Lizzie should tell Frankie the truth about his abusive father, but it is clear that Frankie delights in the global correspondence and the stamp collection he is building from it and because Frankie prefers writing and signing over speech, Lizzie feels that his letters to his 'dad' are the only way she can hear his voice. Frankie charts his dad's ship, the Accra, on a map on his bedroom wall, but the ship's far away when his schoolmate, Ricky Monroe (Sean Brown), shows him a newspaper clipping announcing the vessel's arrival in Glasgow. Frankie bets Ricky his stamp collection that his dad will be at Saturday's football match, but when he's with pal Catriona (Jayd Johnson), wonders why his dad never said he was coming. When Lizzie catches wind of this, she decides to find a man with 'no past, no present and no future' to pose as the seafaring father who does not exist. Marie arranges a meeting with a stranger (Gerard Butler, "The Phantom of the Opera") who fits the bill and thrills young Frankie no end just as Lizzie is contacted by her beseeching sister-in-law (Anne Marie Timoney, "Young Adam") with news that her husband is dying and wants to see his son.
"Dear Frankie" takes a page from such preceding well-intentioned, deceitful correspondence films as the recent "Since Otar Left" and 1980's "I Sent a Letter to My Love." It shares a tonal quality with the former, where the demise of a past way of life frees its characters in their letting go, and an atmospheric kinship with the latter, which took place on the grey-blue hued Northwest coast of France. Production designer Jennifer Kernke ("Angels & Insects") could have found her whole motif in the crackled tiling of the downstairs entry to Frankie's flat which depicts ocean going vessels in greens and blues. (Glasgow is a ship-building city, but "Dear Frankie" was mostly shot in Greenock on the Clyde, just west of the city, allowing for more green, open spaces and water views.)
The elfin Mortimer carries a look of pinched worry, which can disappear in a flash as she communicates with her son or slowly melt as she lowers her guard against a man with no past. Young McElhone conveys inquisitive intelligence and thoughtfulness, fleshing out a character with only three words of dialogue. Butler is perfect as the tall, dark handsome stranger, another man of few words but great perception. The cast is neatly rounded with the old school practicality Riggans brings to Nell and the more modern, fun-loving warmth of Small.
Auerbach and Gibb make strong filmmaking debuts, letting restraint and ambiguity work more magic than traditional Hollywood storytelling. The director has a great command of her cast and her location. "Dear Frankie" is a film that fully engages with the search for a 'champion skimmer' and defines its characters so subtly that they surprise us when they act just the way we've been told they should.
B+
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