Yes here is my once every 6 month review on a title thats not a horror film. I first watched this in 2004 and I have seen it with every girlfriend I've had since than so that would be another 6 or 7 times. Just loved this movie and made me a fan of Emily Mortimer. I even appreciate it more now since I have become a father and just could not imagine my son being without me. This film will make you laugh cry and did I mention cry and cry some more. All in all you will feel good about humanity and life when the dust settles here. Please go out and rent, download , stream or just simply buy the DVD off ebay. You will treasure it for life.

The Director's name is Shona Auerbach: I was moved by her display of patience, and confidence in the "illustration of silence" - allowing the film to play out at a pace either organically created on-set or in her own intuition - either way, she showed extreme patience in the gradualness of the production. Just when you thought you had the story figured she would intricately place another turn/detail with absolute precision.I can only imagine how Quentin Tarantino would've approached this film, given on a silver platter the violent opportunities in the script, he probably would've tore into some violent display, (eg: the event that caused Frankie's hearing loss) in some dramatic opening scene - or maybe had one of the characters reprimand the school bully for his overt abuse. Most male directors have a difficult time resisting the apparent or the obvious - Ms. Auerbach showed incredible restraint not to do what was anticipated.For example... You knew at some point Lizzie and the stranger were going to kiss, maybe on the walk along the ocean after the party or shortly there after. However, she showed confidence in the power of silence to wait and instead ask the actors to just stand at the door and literally stare, for what felt like at least 60 seconds before partially acknowledging what was just a half kiss - as a viewer this directly interfered with my expectations, and gave additional credence to....This is not a movie at all, we're voyeurs actually watching this un-fold.Most directors/actors would've rushed through that scene - not finding it a pivotal, powerful, poignant, telling moment as she did. Her patience to "wait" and allow the actors to feel their way through the movie almost as if they were blind-folded, literally having to feel the gravity of each scene before actually filming.Can you imagine the discipline required - literally fighting against your natural instincts to tell the story while the actors I'm sure are fighting against their own natural instinct to act or what turns into over-acting - this could've easily turned into a scenario where the crew was filming a... Take #:45 of a scene #:30. Another example...Would be the two actors at the fish tank observing the sea horse - let's remember directing child actors has it's own challenges, imagine the responsibility coupled with having to draw everyone on-set into your belief that the silence is working and how it can ultimately show in the film as an additional character.Further, It was the juxtaposition of how the director used silence and Frankie's silence (being deaf)... Truly captivating! As a viewer, and like his Mother, the only time we could hear his voice was through the letters.Another moving scene for me was when Frankie came home from school and leaned up against the wall in the lobby portraying this intimate moment with the design in the tile. For me, it was the proof she was in some type of zone - it was like watching Michael Jordan go lights out in game 7 in the NBA Finals. She was so committed and brazen in her belief that the silence was working - I simply sat back and watched in awe. Now knowing her background as a still photographer and cinematographer, and with this being her first feature film - I spent more time listening to what she "didn't" say.I was struck by how she refrained from illuminating the majestic back-drop, the ocean scenery set in the small Scottish town off the coast - instead she choose to use this grayish hue. I can only assume she felt it would be adding un-needed layers, and pulling the viewer away from the power of the story. The directors job is similar to a musical composer, who in the studio has to make the critical creative decision when enough is enough - Shona and her editor executed with perfection! In closing.. There are rarely movies where a powerful story is equally matched, maybe dominated by a powerful performance (..yes performance) by the director, this is indeed one of those rarities.http://www.totalfilm.com/trailers/dear-frankie-inthttp://www.totalfilm.com/trailers/dear-frankie-int

There is an argument around that the Brits don't do melodrama in film very well, preferring to to cram it all into their soaps. The wry humour strain is there from Whisky Galore to Local Hero, bleak urban blight like Ratcatcher and Red Road abounds, even feel good movies like Billy Elliot and The Full Monty have their day. But melodrama? Best left to Almodovar and other foreigners, it seems.Then along comes Dear Frankie. The film takes a while to win you over. The fag buying scene, the incorrigible granny, the librarian fawning over the boy when she discovers his disability - it all seems a tad indulgent, a bit too forced. But Frankie's charisma grows on you, and the dilemma his Mum has created for herself bubbles with intrigue. Butler's air of menace as the brooding stranger is introduced at just the right time and perfectly counter-balances the rainbow-tinted tone till that point. The plot is only incredulous to anyone who has never been part of a family and knows nothing of how absurd the problems they create for themselves can be.The soundtrack can be a bit smothering at times, and the dying hospital patient has far too much energy, muscle tone and rage for a dying man, but these are minor quibbles. Dear Frankie is an engaging tale, well-acted and unashamedly melodramatic, in the best sense. I read the logline and rolled my eyes, but in the end gave up a few well-earned tears. There is enough dark, tortured Glaswegian angst on celluloid (and in my family, for that matter) to satisfy aficionados of that strain of film-making. It is too cynical to suggest we don't have room for the likes of a Dear Frankie.Those of us who are parents, or who are brave enough to remember, will admit that children know a helluva lot more than we give them credit for. That is the message that Dear Frankie ultimately delivers, and triumphantly, too. Selling Glaswegian melodrama could not have been easy. Pullingit off, harder still. Bravo.

I saw Dear Frankie recently and never having heard about it, was pleased that TV Ontario had televised this little gem of a motion picture. On this side of the Atlantic, we often miss out on some of the better movies that come out of the British Isles and this one is no exception. All the actors are excellent and the atmosphere of the Scottish coastal town has a wonderful sense of location, grim and majestic at the same time.The movie is realistic and heart-warming with an understated sense of humor. The child in the role of Frankie, performed by Jack McElhone, is an absolute delight. He is bright and imaginative child with a severe hearing impairment but not completely deaf (he is using a hearing aid). Yet he can stand up to the bullying tactics of the other kids at school. His mother Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) is coping with the responsibilities of being a single mother, while longing to find a husband. The surrogate father (Gerard Butler) seems to be a natural as the missing link in the family unit, while Lizzie faces the torture of dealing with the real father. The rest of the cast, including Lizzie's mother and her best friend, are all worthy of mention.The ending is bittersweet but hopeful. It is rare to find a movie that tells a story so well and is yet so down-to-earth. This is fine movie. Don't miss it.