On Dear Frankie

Frankie (Jack McElhone), a nine-year-old deaf boy, has been writing letters to his absent father for years. Except that his father hasn't received any of the letters, much less written any replies. Actually, Frankie's mother Lizzie has been the one corresponding with him under the guise of his father's name. Lizzie has told her son that his father is a sailor on board the Accra. But when the ship, which Lizzie thought existed only in her imagination, comes to town, Lizzie finds herself in a tight spot. She does what any mother would do - she hires a total stranger to play her husband for a day.

Putting aside some moral issues, Dear Frankie uses wonderful acting, a stream-lined script, and lovely Scottish accents to make a sweet little tale. Slow-paced, relaxed, and gentle, it paints a beautiful picture of a woman and her son struggling with their troubles. Frankie doesn't seem too bothered by his deafness, but he won't even speak to his mother, much less anyone else. Lizzie is struggling with single motherhood and the tragedies that have befallen her and her loved ones, and at times it seems like her mother's feistiness and her son's fragility are the only things that keep her afloat.

At the same time, Dear Frankie doesn't resort to too much drama. There are several scenes that are entirely without dialogue, and many others where the dialogue is very simple. That isn't to say the filmmakers wrote a boring or amateurish script. In fact, the script uses impressively few words to convey major parts of the story. Instead, it just means that the movie is about simple people with complicated problems.

One of the simplest characters in the movie is the man Lizzie hires to play her husband. The credits identify him merely as "The Stranger" (Gerard Butler). He has "no past, no present, and no future," but he has a very good heart. All it takes to talk him into helping Lizzie protect her son from the truth is a picture of Frankie taken just before his father disappeared. As the movie goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that he will do almost anything to make Frankie feel like his father truly loves him.

When tragedy hits, many people are prompted to ask "why?" Dear Frankie shows that it is not only possible to survive tragedy, it is possible that tragedy can lead directly to things that are more wonderful than anything that happened before tragedy struck.

My Rating: MT (language, sexual references - two made by children)