Directed by Shona Auerbach and filmed on location in Scotland, DEAR FRANKIE is a poignant, humorous story about a family struggling with isolation and poverty. Deaf nine-year-old Frankie (Jack McElhone) only knows his dad through the letters they exchange. Frankie reads each new letter reverently, saving the exotic stamps his dad sends from the different ports he visits as a sailor on the Accra, and loves the sea just as he thinks his dad must. But Frankie's mother, Lizzie (Emily Mortimer), has a secret--she's the one writing the letters and sending them from a post office. When she reads that the Accra is coming to Glasgow, Lizzie must decide if it's time to tell Frankie the truth, or find a man (Gerard Butler) to pretend to be his father for one day. Intimately focused and carefully told, DEAR FRANKIE slowly unwinds its coiled story to reveal the reason behind Lizzie's well-meaning deception. The performances are universally stellar. Mortimer combines steely determination with glimpses of vulnerability, Butler is a perfect combination of hesitation warming to genuine affection, and McElhone steals the show in a spot-on performance as a normal boy longing for his dad. DEAR FRANKIE offers a moving, uplifting look at families and the complicated love at the heart of each one.
