| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Heartfelt & Charming
by WarriorPrincess (movies profile)
Oct 14, 2005
5
of
5 people found this review helpful
I thought I would rent this movie to begin with, unfortunately none of the video rental places had it. After finding a copy finally at Border's and having a 25% off coupon, I purchased it to watch that evening. From the beginning, when Frankie starts his narrative, and the scenes of his little family packing up to move began, I was utterly charmed.
Jack McElhone as Frankie, gives a portrayal of a sweet, unspoiled deaf boy who has maintained his own dignity, values and inner strength from the love and determination of the two women raising him: his mother Lizzie, portrayed beautifully by Emily Mortimer and his grandmother Nell, played by veteran radio actress Mary Riggans.
Mortimer gives Lizzie's fragile beauty depth as we learn about the level of her tremendous, stalwart strength in her determination to protect her only child from the harsh truths that surround his life without smothering him. Just how much she has protected him becomes plainer during a conversation with The Stranger, played effortlessly and flawlessly by Gerard Butler, as they stroll down a boardwalk after a dance one night.
Butler's character, The Stranger, is there because Lizzie has grafted an illusion of a loving, concerned father for Frankie to shield his feelings from the harsh truth of the abusive, violent man who lays dying in a hospital nearby. She hires Butler through a friend to stand in for the fictional father, a role he accepts readily but you can see and sense his confusion in the matter.
Lizzie is a delicate, determined woman whose well intended charade threatens to collapse at several points from a misplaced word or action on the part of the supporting players. She is overwhelmed when she learns that even her son, the very one she tries to protect from the terrible knowledge she is keeping from him, has figured out the truth.
The cast is amazing in this movie - it conveys warmth and love without being syrupy or saccharine. Butler's quiet Stranger at first seems a bit distant and austere, but you quickly realize that he is observant and concerned; a protective man who is taking his temporary role in this little family very seriously. He never dominates a scene, rather he fills it up and makes it complete with his very presence - a solid wall of quiet strength in Frankie's and Lizzie's life that fits like a proverbial glove.
There are no deep mysteries here, no spectacular action scenes, no remarkable songs. Dear Frankie is about warmth, about family and what makes a family. The protectiveness of a mother, the support of a grandmother, the joy and naivete' of a child and the solid shield of strength and caring from the father figure in a young boy's life.
It is a lovely movie and one which is fare not only to a family but to anyone who is in need of a heartwarming moment. |
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