| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Mortimer, McElhone, and Butler each bring sensitivity and likability to their roles, but they've an uphill battle personifying characters who are, respectively, a clairvoyant, a fantasist, and a fantasy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 17, 2005

The pain that's evoked in this small, warm film -- the deep and unspoken yearning of child -- is as universal as it is heartbreaking.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2005

The film works as a highlight tape for the cast and will satisfy any desire you have to be driven to the brink of tears.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 14, 2005

There is no unnecessary dialogue, and Auerbach encourages us to listen closely and to study the situation. We are required to learn truths slowly, at the same pace as the characters.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2005

Gives us a spoonful of medicine to make the sugar go down. Depending on your tolerance, it just may go down a treat.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2005

Director Auerbach and her able cast dial down the volume on the performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2005

In the insightful hands of first-time filmmaker Shona Auerbach and veteran actors who play their roles with intelligence, the movie deftly ducks the schmaltz.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 24, 2005

A soft-hearted but soberly made little movie that gives sentimentality a good name.

Full Review | Mar 17, 2005

I'm pleased to report that, within this overly familiar trope, there's plenty of room for small surprises, not the least of which are delightful, understated performances all around.

| Mar 11, 2005

A wrenchingly sweet and beautifully acted film that keeps surprising us -- it never takes us where we think it's going, but always where we want to go.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 11, 2005

The sort of movie that deserves every heart it wins, and it will win many.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 11, 2005

For all its sentimental superficiality, Dear Frankie is emotionally affecting.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 11, 2005

This sounds, I know, like the plot of a melodramatic tearjerker, but the filmmakers work close to the bone, finding emotional truth in hard, lonely lives.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 11, 2005

This wee Scottish drama takes a mawkish premise and, by playing its cards close to the vest, imbues it with quiet, careworn dignity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 11, 2005

An endearing, occasionally sentimental story told with depth and substance.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 10, 2005

One false note from actors or director, and the movie would collapse under the weight of fulfilling too many wishes. But it stays afloat with grace and even charm.

| Original Score: B | Mar 10, 2005

It rings true at heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 10, 2005

Both Mortimer and McElhone stitch together this carefully modulated little character piece, with McElhone shining particularly bright as Frankie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 10, 2005

A Scottish weepie of such bathos and balderdash that it deserves a drinking game in its rotten honor: Bend an elbow every time you've underestimated how low screenwriter Andrea Gibb and director Shona Auerbach will go to wring a tear.

| Original Score: D- | Mar 9, 2005