Dear Frankie
Shona Auerbach /Scotland | 2004 | 102mins | 35mm | Colour
Producer Caroline Wood
Leading Players Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler, Sharon Small, Jack McElhone
Photography Shona Auerbach
Script Andrea Gibb
Editor Oral Norrie Ottey
Music Alex Heffes
On the surface, Dear Frankie is about a boy who communicates by letter with his long-lost father. But this sweet, charming film is really a love letter to the relationship between mothers and sons. Ten-year-old Frankie and his single mom, Lizzie, have been constantly on the move for as long as he can remember. She took Frankie and ran away from his abusive father when he was very young.
Every few weeks, he receives a letter from his father from a different exotic port of call. Unbeknownst to Frankie, his mother Lizzie is really writing the letters, in an effort to give the boy a father figure in his life. When Frankie learns that the ship on which he believes his father is stationed is coming to town, Lizzie must make a desperate choice: telling Frankie the truth or the safer alternative of finding someone to pose as his sailor father.
There is nothing more rewarding in cinema than a precise, gentle and beautifully honed exploration of the vagaries of the human heart. Dear Frankie provides this reward, and much more. – Toronto Film Festival