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Dear Frankie
Dir: Shona Auerbach UK 2003 104 mins 12PG
Cast: Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler, Jack McElhone, Sharon Small, Mary Riggans
There is nothing more rewarding in cinema than a precise, gentle and beautifully honed exploration of the vagaries of the human heart. Dear Frankie provides this reward, and much more.
Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) has raised her nine-year-old son Frankie (Jack McElhone) on her own, telling the boy that his father is a sailor perennially away at sea. As a result, he is obsessed with all things nautical while living ashore with his Ma and Nana (Mary Riggans) above a fish-and-chip shop where the meals are a disappointing substitute for the exotic marine life of his fantasies.
Frankie corresponds regularly with his absent father and is unaware that it is his mother who writes the letters from Dad; as Frankie is deaf, these letters bring Lizzie joy by providing her most intimate means of communication with her son. Complications arise, however, with the arrival of a boat bearing the name Lizzie had invented for his father's vessel - and Frankie anticipates a long-awaited reunion. Boxed in, Lizzie hires a complete stranger (Gerard Butler), to pretend to be Frankie's father for two hours of imaginary shore leave.
The stranger's invitation to join the family triangle for a brief while injects a massive dose of testosterone into the household dynamic. Butler is masculinity personified, with an epicentre of vulnerability that sends shockwaves through Lizzie's tightly controlled universe. While Frankie basks in his membership in the Boys Who Have Dads Club, Lizzie attempts to right the upset applecart of her previously well-defined life. - Jane Schoettle, Toronto International Film Festival
Shona Auerbach started her career as a photographer before studying film in the United Kingdom and at the Polish National Film School in Lódz. In addition to her work as a cinematographer, she has directed several commercials and the short film Seven (96). Dear Frankie (04) is her first feature.
“.a gem of a picture..." Hollywood Reporter
Winner - Lena Sharpe Award / Seattle International Film Festival 2004
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