Release Year: 2004 Rating: PG-13 Duration: 102 minutes Other Title: Natural History Director: Shona Auerbach Producer: Caroline Wood Distributor: Miramax Films
synopsis
Running away from the father of her deaf son Frankie when he was very young, Lizzie (Mortimer) has created a fictional history for her son in which the father is eternally at sea on a ship called the HMS Accra, even as the duo have spent the last nine years moving from place to place in Scotland frequently. Lizzie even goes so far to embellish the fantasy as writing letters every few weeks to Frankie from the fictitious version of his father, entertaining Frankie with tales of far away lands. The fantasy appears likely to be doomed soon, however, when Frankie learns that the real life HMS Accra is due to dock nearby their current home town, so Lizzie sets about to find someone who pose as Frankie's sailor father.
cast
Emily Mortimer as Lizzie
quote
[writing a letter to his dad]
Frankie: Dear da, did you know something? We're moving again. Ma says it's time. She says it's definitely the last time but she says that every single time! Nana Gourley says if there is a next time they'll have to carry her out in a box and ma says 'don't tempt her!'
Conservative or liberal, socialist or Republican, all agree: every kid needs a good father to serve as his or her model of male behavior. The father may not be around all the time. He could be on an opposite coast or in the merchant marines. Just the knowledge that there's a good dad out there could be enough. In fact, as this movie will show, finding dad geographically separated by his job is better than having an abusive male stomping about the house.
