Dear Frankie
(c) AJMalouin 2006
(Ratings: 4 by Al and 18 by Caryl) (2004/Scotland, aka the United Kingdom. Directed by Shona Auerbach) (1 hour 45. Rated PG-13 in the USA.)
“Dear Frankie” is a worthwhile movie sent to us from Scotland. It again shows us that good movies can be made on a small budget. In “Dear Frankie” a protective single mom is attempting to bring up her nine-year-old deaf son. To give him a good male role-model, she invents a “glamorous” sea-faring father for him to look up to. Frankie religiously writes letters to that invented father. His mother collects the letters from a post office box and answers them with letters supposedly written from exotic places. Frankie tracks the route of his imaginary father’s ship on a world map that hangs in his room. He starts a stamp collection that he treasures dearly. Then comes the day when Frankie reads that his “father’s” ship is to dock at the seaside Scottish industrial city in which currently Frankie lives. The plot gets interesting when Frankie’s mom hires The Stranger to pretend to be Frankie’s dad. We both really enjoyed this gem of a movie. Al rated it a lot higher than Caryl did because he is part Scot and therefore treasures all things Scottish. That includes the setting of the industrial seaside Scottish city and all the people who inhabit it. “Dear Frankie” stars Jack McElhone as Frankie, Emily Mortimer as his mother, Lizzie, Gerard Butler as The Stranger, and features a very strong supporting cast as well.