| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Wise and wondrous.
|
| 88 |
USA Today
Claudia Puig
An endearing, occasionally sentimental story told with depth and substance.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
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.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Subtle and graceful directorial debut.
|
| 80 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Ray Bennett
The movie is filled with small moments of tenderness, insight and considerable wisdom.
|
| 80 |
Variety
David Rooney
Material that might have turned to standard dysfunctional family treacle in other hands is given stirring poignancy, warmth and emotional insight in Shona Auerbach's assured first feature.
|
| 75 |
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
What could have been a sentimental train wreck emerges as a funny and touching portrait of three bruised people.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
It is a sweet, wonderfully acted cameo of a movie about the lengths to which a lioness will go to protect her cub.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The movie's still shameless; the difference is you don't mind.
|
| 75 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Very well crafted and superbly acted. Whatever you may think of the idea, its execution is admirable.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
For anyone who has ever had to balance what the heart yearns for against what the head insists must be, this film should hit home.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The movie has been shot with love and wisdom, and its implausible premise doesn't get in the way of a sweetness and honesty too rarely seen.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Dear Frankie is a small movie with a big soul and no easy formula for the happiness of its big-hearted characters.
|
| 75 |
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
But as the story takes some surprising turns, it works like a slow infection: Patient audience members may find themselves awakening to the story in much the same way the characters awaken to their own capacities for tenderness.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
Robert K. Elder
Doesn't revert to hairpin plot twists or other dramatic trickery to hook us in; Auerbach simply lets us live with her characters-which, it turns out, is reward enough.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
The film, with its painterly juxtapositions of dockside industry, green hills, and cloud-scudded sky, is full of misguided motives and fairy-tale fraud. But it rings true at heart.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
The film tugs at us. And we forgive it its faults because it never loses sight of what it's supposed to be even though the story has a manipulative edge and maneuvers our feelings.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Within this overly familiar trope, there's plenty of room for small surprises, not the least of which are delightful, understated performances all around.
|
| 70 |
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
"Miramax porn." The term refers to manipulative tearjerkers like Dear Frankie whose sensitive performances, along with a light dusting of grit, allow them to be marketed as art films. This one is clever enough to fool a lot of people.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Mortimer is riveting as the sympathetic but flawed Lizzie.
|
| 70 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
On its own terms, Dear Frankie works much better than it really has any right to. Auerbach tells a small, contrived story, but gives it the weight of life.
|
| 70 |
Film Threat
Ross Williams
While the film isn’t completely perfect, director and cinematographer Shona Auerbach shows that she’s a great new filmmaking talent.
|
| 63 |
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The end result is an unremarkable, unmemorable movie that deserves neither praise nor approbation.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
Kyle Smith
The film is soft and sticky, but it deserves a (small) audience. If you're in that peculiar kind of blue mood where you'd like to be just a bit bluer, Dear Frankie might be the right choice.
|
| 60 |
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
Dear Frankie's surprises are few and low-key, but the story wraps up nicely.
|
| 60 |
Dallas Observer
Bill Gallo
Happily, the director and writer Andrea Gibb treat little Frankie with as much dramatic respect as the grown-up characters, and he saves the movie from killing sweetness.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Well acted, capably directed, not as substantial as it might have been.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
The movie’s glib trafficking in illness, death and pinched little faces to jury-rig our emotional responses (Gibb was inspired by the equally likable, equally pandering Czech film "Kolya") lost me at hello.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
I’m all for ambiguity, but Dear Frankie’s multiple dangling threads indicate incoherent storytelling, not profundity.
|
| 30 |
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
Somehow the U.K. film industry can always scrounge enough loose change from the cushions to foot the bill for a pre-chewed lump of sickly saltwater taffy like the mawkish Scottish-seaside postcard Dear Frankie.
|
| 16 |
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
A Scottish weepie of such bathos and balderdash that it deserves a drinking game in its rotten honor.
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