Review of Dear Frankie (2004) by Sean O — 09 Mar 2008

Here is the wiki on this. Just a lovely movie.

Nine-year-old Frankie Morrison (Jack McElhone) and his single mother Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her son from the truth that they have run away from his father whose brutality caused Frankie to be deaf, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra, not knowing there is really a ship with this name. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes to Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures as a sailor in exotic lands, and Frankie tracks the ship's supposed progress around the globe. He discovers that it is due to dock in Greenock, his latest hometown. With this real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, a panicked Lizzie enlists the help of her friend and co-worker, Marie, to hire a stranger (Gerard Butler) to play Frankie's father, Davey, for just one day. Frankie and the stranger like each other so much that they both want to be together another day, with Lizzie joining them. Lizzie is first reluctant to allow that, but later agrees. At the end of that day, after saying goodbye with a slow dance and a kiss, she finds the money she paid the stranger, put back in her pocket.

Meanwhile the real Davey is dying. Lizzie visits him but refuses Davey's request to bring Frankie along because of Davey's abusive nature. Davey eventually dies, and Lizzie shows Frankie the obituary to explain why his 'father' will not return.

At the end of the movie, another letter sent by Frankie and collected by Lizzie reveals to her and to the audience that Frankie knows the man was not his real father, but that he appreciated the time they had together; it is suggested that the stranger will return and possibly continue his friendship with Frankie and his romance with Lizzie. (Marie tells Lizzie that the man was her brother.).