Screen It: Parental Review: "Dear Frankie" - Review addresses film content, the cast as role models and offers a parental advisory notice. Xiibaro Reviews: Dear Frankie - Under the façade of overly sentimental melodramatics is a surprisingly assured and hopeful rendition of a deaf boy’s story of finding his father. By David Perry. Reeling Review of Dear Frankie - "Dear Frankie" is a film that fully engages with the search for a 'champion skimmer' and defines its characters so subtly that they surprise us when they act just the way we've been told they should. By Robin and Laura Clifford. Hybridmagazine.com: Dear Frankie - I found it to be a sweet, touching, and overall engaging experience. Review by Jeffrey “The Vile One” Harris. Movie-Vault.com: Dear Frankie - Sweet without being too sentimental despite having a plot which sounds deceptively like a Hallmark movie or TV soap, Scottish film Dear Frankie is surprisingly worthwhile. By Avril Carruthers. FilmJerk.com: Dear Frankie - A sweet, gentle story of unusual relationships, “Dear Frankie” has a giant heart, yet the film rarely dips into sentimentality. An unexpectedly calm performance from Gerard Butler helps matters greatly, making this a rare Miramax surprise. By Brian Orndorf. DVD Review: Dear Frankie - By keeping away from big emotional moments, sappy ballads on the soundtrack and other such genre staples, "Dear Frankie" actually steers away from the kind of tearjerker train wreck that it could have easily become. 2004: The Summer's Best - Even more disappointing is that Dear Frankie, which has received strong buzz so far from the majority of critics, turned out to be an entirely ho-hum motion picture. By Danny Baldwin. Rogerebert.com: Reviews - Dear Frankie - "The filmmakers work close to the bone, finding emotional truth in hard, lonely lives," says the acclaimed critic in this favorable review of Shona Auerbach's 2004 film. Dear Frankie - This slice of life drama still leaves open the ethical question of lying to your child as a way of showing you're a caring mom. By Dennis Schwartz. The Flick Filosopher: Dear Frankie - Director Shona Auerbach and writer Andrea Gibb have found all sorts of ways to depict tender moments of unspoken love and the wisdom and sweetness of children and will require at least four hankies if you're anything like me. By MaryAnn Johanson. Review for Dear Frankie - Emily Mortimer, Jack McElhone, and Gerard Butler star in "Dear Frankie," an attentive and well-made Scottish import that emphasizes strong character development in ways that are both subtle and complex. By David N. Butterworth. Dear Frankie - Dear Frankie is definitely sappy and predictable, but it's also well executed. It's a movie that wins you over in short order. By Scott Chitwood. Spirituality & Practice:Dear Frankie - Shona Auerbach directs this intimate family drama that demonstrates the lengths one loving mother will go to protect her son from the truth about his dangerous and violent father. By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Entertainment Weekly: Dear Frankie - Dear Frankie is 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. By Lisa Schwarzbaum.