Dear Frankie (2004)

I wasn't expecting too much from this one, as I usually have some trouble with dialect films -- this one was set in Glasgow -- but I was happily surprised by this poignant tale.  Emily Mortimer, her mum and her deaf son have been constantly moving about to avoid her ex-husband and his family.  One discovers that Frankie wasn't born deaf, but that this was the result of marital violence.  His mother has been telling him for years that his father is at sea and she has managed to arrange a totally fictional exchange of letters between the pair.  When the ship she's chosen is about to dock and a schoolmate challenges the lad that there is no father, Mortimer resorts to hiring a surrogate to play the part.  Her choice is played by Gerard Butler who gives a moving performance and who bonds with the boy, as the latter desperately needs a father-figure.  Frankie relishes their few days together before being told that his father has become ill and died -- but the boy is not as naive as those around him would have it.  A small film, but very satisfying in its way.