Film Review

Dear Frankie
Buena Vista (2005)
Director: Shona Auerbach
Starring: Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler,
Jack McElhone, Mary Riggins, Sharon Small, Sean Brown


Review by Jenni van Wageningen

Nine-year old Frankie (Jack McElhone) is deaf and never speaks. He and his mother never stay in the one place for long. Together with Frankie’s chain-smoking grandmother, (Mary Riggins), they move from town to town in Scotland in an effort to avoid discovery by Frankie’s abusive father.

Loving deception

However, Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) has chosen to conceal the truth about his father from Frankie. She pretends that his dad is simply away at sea as a merchant seaman, and encourages him to write regularly. The letters Frankie receives in return, telling of experiences in faraway lands, are written by his mum. As Frankie tracks his dad’s progress around the world, he discovers his ship is about to dock in their seaside Scottish town. Lizzie has to decide between telling Frankie the truth or finding someone to play the role of father for the day.

Lizzie loves her son so much that she want to protect him from the terrible truth about the father whose violence caused his son’s deafness when he was a toddler. She is aware of Frankie’s deep yearning for a father, and the letters he writes are the only way she can ‘hear his voice’ and continue to understand him.

Hope and innocence

Several important truths underpin this movie. Frankie reminds us about the importance of hope in a child’s life, and his mother is loving and sensitive enough to keep her son’s hope alive for what she sees as his well-being and happiness. However, this hope is based on a lie, and this tension propels the plot.

Lizzie also does all she can to protect Frankie’s innocence so he can enjoy the normal preoccupations of a child. She encourages his interest in marine fish and stamp-collecting, and as far as it is possible, she cushions him from the impact of a broken family by concealing the ugly facts about his father. Nowadays children are rarely shielded from situations beyond their comprehension. Many parents actively encourage their children to grow up far too fast by allowing them to be exposed to inappropriate television programmes, movies and other activities.

Father figure

However, the most important thread running through the movie is the importance of a father to complete a family, to provide balance and to mirror God’s love and grace. All children have this deep need for a father-figure. The fragmentation of many families and the absence of a father in children’s lives is a sad fact of modern western society. Two other recent and very fine movies reflect a precoccupation with this issue – About a boy (see a previous review) and The Chorus or Les Choristes.

All this relates to the universal need and yearning for our Father God. If he does not belong in our lives, our real needs and basic longings remain unfulfilled.

This has all the makings of a heart rending film, but there are so many wry and humorous touches that it does not develop into a tissue-grabber and avoids any syrupy touches. This is probably because it is British/Scottish, and in a tradition which generally faces issues squarely and avoids the sentimental.

Perhaps the plot is somewhat contrived, but this can be overlooked in such a refreshing and appealing film. And the ending, I was very pleased to find, is far from trite or predictable.

Even though this movie has a child as the central character, the themes demand maturity in the viewer for full appreciation
 

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