Dear Frankie

 3.5.4

Starring: Emily Mortimer, Jack McElhone, Mary Riggans, Gerard Butler, Sharon Small

Rated PG-13 for Language

What makes "Dear Frankie" such a touching experience is that it has the good sense to take itself seriously.  The idea behind this movie, that a mother's lie to her son blows up in her face, could have been turned into a dim-witted sitcom.  But director Shona Auerbach and writer Andrea Gibb have too much respect for the characters they have created.  The people in this movie have very good reasons for acting the way they do.

Frankie (McElhone) has never met his father.  His dad is a sailor on a ship called the ACCRA, and they keep in touch by letter.  Having moved yet again, young Frankie wastes little time making friends.  When one of them points out that a boat named the ACCRA is coming into port in their little Scottish town, Frankie is delighted.  What he doesn't know is that while his father exists, he isn't the person replying to his letters.  That would be his mother, Lizzie (Mortimer), and now that the ship she didn't know was real is coming to port, she has a choice to make (neither of which she likes).  The first option is continue the lie and make up an excuse for why his father can't visit him in person (thus making Frankie lose a bet with his new friend).  The other is to follow her mother's (Riggans) advice and reveal the truth.  Instead, she makes a third choice: find a stranger to pose as Frankie's father then "kill him off" to end the deception.  Sure enough, she finds a man (Butler) willing to do the deed, but things don't turn out the way that any of them anticipate.

"Dear Frankie" sounds like a tearjerking romantic comedy from the Hallmark Channel.  It could have been one.  But it isn't.  The characters are too strong for that.  For example.  Lizzie started the deception for selfish reasons, and it simply escalated out of her control.  Lying to her son weighs heavy on her, but the secrets from her past make it difficult to end it.  Her son Frankie is smarter than she gives him credit for, which leads to some tricky situations for her.  As for the man she hires, it's strictly business for him.  He wants to do the job, get paid and leave.  Lizzie wanted someone with "no past, present or future," and that's exactly what he intends on being.  He takes the job a bit too seriously though, as he discovers within himself a growing affection for Frankie and Lizzie.

Much respect must go to the actors for pulling off these difficult roles.  Emily Mortimer has never disappointed, even in bad movies (she should have gotten an Oscar nod for "Match Point," but did not).  Lizzie constantly has her guard up.  She braces against facing the same hurts she suffered before.  Mainly though, she is afraid that the past will come back to haunt her.  Or worse, that she will seek out her past.  Gerard Butler manages to straddle the line between being aloof and likable.  Had he not found the correct balance, the film wouldn't have worked.  Strange as it is to say, he's the kind of guy Robert Pattinson tried to create in "Twilight."  And Jack McElhone is simply charming.  He's not a prop used to look cute or be set up for heartbreak, but a smart kid with his own hopes and desires.

This was the directorial debut for Auerbach, and it's an impressive one.  She understands that the characters are the heart of a movie like this.  If the audience doesn't believe in them, it doesn't matter what she does behind the camera.  If they do, everything else will fall into place.  There's a great scene with Mortimer and Butler as they just stand and look at each other.  It's a great scene because these two people are so well developed that we know what they're are thinking without them sharing a word.  Words would have ruined the effect.  Not many directors would have known that.

Do yourself a favor: ignore the trailer.  It advertises "Dear Frankie" as the kind of movie that Auerbach went out of her way to prevent it from becoming.  While it does have its moments of levity and cheer, this is a darker movie with higher stakes than a simple feel-good melodrama.  It's a lot deeper than that, and all the better for it.