Frankie Starlight **** (1995, Corban Walker, Anne Parillaud, Gabriel Byrne, Matt Dillon, Niall Toibin) – Classic Movie Review 9617

Frankie Bois (Corban Walker) pens his life story in director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s delicious 1995 heartwarmer Frankie Starlight, an adaptation of Chet Raymo’s novel The Dork of Cork.

As his mother Bernadette (Anne Parillaud) brings up the always tiny Frankie, she enjoys an affair with Jack Kelly (Gabriel Byrne), who is a substitute dad for the boy he calls Frankie Starlight, after giving him lessons about the solar system.

Later mam meets an American man, Terry Klout (Matt Dillon), who takes her and Frankie to a hostile US West environment, returning to the Emerald Isle, where Frankie finds salvation in writing.

The BFI National Film Theatre in London rescued this beautifully acted, subtly written and superbly realised little gem from an undeserved oblivion in the UK.

Also in the cast are Niall Toibin, Owen Roe, Victoria Begeja, Julian Negulesco, Jean-Claude Frissung, Corine Blue, Dearbhla Molloy, Georgina Cates, John S Davies, Barbara Alyn Woods, Amber Hibler, Jessie-Ann Friend and Rudi Davies.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9617

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