Sleeper Films: “Dear Frankie”

I thought it might be interesting this week to bring to the attention of the GITS community favorite movies of ours that might have slipped beneath the radar. They could be indie features, foreign movies, or older films, but while they may not have achieved much in the way of notoriety, something about them clicked with you — memorable characters or scenes, compelling plots or dialogue. What are some of your favorite ‘sleeper’ films?

My recommendation today is the 2004 drama Dear Frankie. Written by Andrea Gibb and directed by Shona Auerbach, the story could have easily slipped into melodrama — given the premise — but both writer and director did a great job crafting a fine, human slice-of-life drama. Here is the IMDB plot summary:

Nine-year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they’ve run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands. As Frankie tracks the ship’s progress around the globe, he discovers that it is due to dock in his hometown. With the real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must choose between telling Frankie the truth or finding the perfect stranger to play Frankie’s father for just one day…

Emily Mortimer and Gerard Butler are excellent in the lead roles, and Jack McElhone does a splendid job as young Frankie.

Here is an excerpt from Roger Ebert’s review of the movie:

Every once in a long while, a director and actors will discover, or rediscover, the dramatic power of silence and time. They are moving pictures, but that doesn’t mean they always have to be moving. At Sundance 2005 I saw Miranda July’s “You and Me and Everyone We Know,” and its scene where a man and a woman who don’t really know each other walk down a sidewalk and engage in a kind of casual word play that leads to a defining moment in their lives. The scene is infinitely more effective than all the countless conventional ways of obtaining the same result. In the same way, the bold long shot near the end of “Dear Frankie” allows the film to move straight as an arrow toward its emotional truth, without a single word or plot manipulation to distract us. While they are looking at each other, we are looking at them, and for a breathless, true moment, we are all looking at exactly the same fact.

The movie’s trailer:

And the scene Ebert reference where it takes a full 40 seconds for the would-be lovers to kiss:

Any fans of Dear Frankie?

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