Dear Frankie is a tender, beautifully realized story of a mother's fierce and loving determination to protect her child. Emily Mortimer gives an achingly true performance as Lizzie and Jack McElhone is remarkable as the sturdy, self-reliant Frankie. Played without a false note, all the characters perfectly convey the challenges of their hardscrabble lives. This film is gorgeous to look at (the director, Shona Auerbach, also served as cinematographer) and the bleak industrial/urban landscape of the Glasgow/Greenock area is like another character. You all know the basic plot outline so I won't go into that. I might, inadvertently, spoil it for you. Instead I'll just go straight into my take on GB's performance as The Stranger.
Still. That is my overall impression of Gerard's performance. The great actors hold your attention during the non-speaking parts of a movie. So many times actors are afraid to be still on film, perhaps equating stillness with being static. Gerard's performance is far from static. Indeed, I am constantly amazed at how much he conveys in the way he holds his body, his little movements of his hands, the turn of his face, and, most notably of course, his eyes. Languid and mesmerizing they speak volumes of hurt and betrayal, hope and resignation. Gerard has few lines of dialog in this movie and he almost doesn't need those. Watch his reaction when Lizzie tells The Stranger how Frankie lost his hearing. Disbelief, pity for the boy, compassion for the mother, rage against the father, all surface in his eyes and mouth and the way he turns his head away and back again. Watch him again in the much discussed doorway scene how hope fights with fear of rejection, of commitment, of hope itself before the kiss and how resignation and sadness in parting, perhaps forever, plays across his face as if the words were written there. Watch he eyes during his final wave to Frankie at the window and the sway of his body as it disappears down the street. It is a soft and yet powerful performance. I've said it before and I'll say it here again: Gerard Butler is the most underrated actor in films today. Like DeNiro, Streep and Brando in his prime, watch him when he's silent. He'll blow you away.
Still. That is my overall impression of Gerard's performance. The great actors hold your attention during the non-speaking parts of a movie. So many times actors are afraid to be still on film, perhaps equating stillness with being static. Gerard's performance is far from static. Indeed, I am constantly amazed at how much he conveys in the way he holds his body, his little movements of his hands, the turn of his face, and, most notably of course, his eyes. Languid and mesmerizing they speak volumes of hurt and betrayal, hope and resignation. Gerard has few lines of dialog in this movie and he almost doesn't need those. Watch his reaction when Lizzie tells The Stranger how Frankie lost his hearing. Disbelief, pity for the boy, compassion for the mother, rage against the father, all surface in his eyes and mouth and the way he turns his head away and back again. Watch him again in the much discussed doorway scene how hope fights with fear of rejection, of commitment, of hope itself before the kiss and how resignation and sadness in parting, perhaps forever, plays across his face as if the words were written there. Watch he eyes during his final wave to Frankie at the window and the sway of his body as it disappears down the street. It is a soft and yet powerful performance. I've said it before and I'll say it here again: Gerard Butler is the most underrated actor in films today. Like DeNiro, Streep and Brando in his prime, watch him when he's silent. He'll blow you away.