David Schurmann’s “My Penguin Good friend” is a refreshing various to the late summer time film lineup.
The lovely one sheet offers a hilarious distinction to the “Alien: Romulus” poster hanging subsequent to it outdoors my native multiplex.
It stars the good Jean Reno as a Brazilian fisherman with a tragic previous (which we witness in an prolonged flashback that opens the movie) who befriends an injured penguin whom he cares for and expects to by no means see once more.
Over the course of eight years, the penguin travels 1000’s of miles and often stops to go to the sort fisherman who nursed him again to well being. That is primarily based on an precise incidence and regardless of my plot description, it performs much less maudlin than anticipated.
Schurmann’s movie has a somber begin and presents a tragic central occasion in a way that’s obscure in its consequence, both to melt the story for its meant viewers or the results of unclear modifying. It takes some time for the emotional core to kind, however this English language Brazilian movie is all the time participating and finds its manner.
As soon as we get previous the unhappy prologue, the movie doesn’t skimp on the penguin footage.
There’s a reasonably attention-grabbing subplot involving scientists that the penguin periodically visits, however the film lives for the scenes between Reno and “Dindim” the penguin. A number of moments are introduced from Dindim’s POV, presenting a uncommon use of “penguin imaginative and prescient.”
Whereas “My Penguin Good friend” is what one would name “household pleasant,” that’s not the identical as being a “youngsters’s movie.” My 5 cents: in case your little one is sufficiently old to take pleasure in “The Black Stallion” (1979), which additionally has intense moments and an emotional core, then that is one other one to hunt out.
This “true story” from 2016 is a small, candy movie. Its well-paced however nonetheless takes its time and is finest for older youngsters. Don’t anticipate “Pleased Ft” (2006), as there’s no CGI, dancing, farting animal shenanigan nonsense. For the document, cinema’s penguin peak stays “March of the Penguins” (2005).
The tip footage exhibits the true fisherman and the penguin, which begs the apparent query – why didn’t the filmmakers simply make a documentary? The simple, apparent response: we’d miss out on one other nice efficiency from Reno, who all the time made me imagine the anguish and mild coronary heart of his character.
Reno soulfulness, a hanging high quality that made him standout within the earlier movies of Luc Besson, continues right here, in an surprising however potent characterization. In a movie profession that spans over 40 years, I can recall dozens of situations the place Reno was intimidating, charismatic and hypnotic to observe, generally abruptly.
Reno’s newest movie additionally reminds us of how assaying surprising roles has been part of his profession, as a lot as enjoying Leon in “The Skilled (1994), is probably his defining second. It’s a pleasure to observe the identical actor carry real gravitas and emotional heft to scenes with a penguin co-star.
Being a bit of film throughout a season of particularly loud and outsized blockbusters isn’t a foul factor. Neither is presenting a narrative about an lovely animal the place the creature is actual and never a CGI facsimile. As a mirrored image on how animals can present consolation and therapeutic of their mere presence, the enjoyment on this movie is unforced.
Two and a Half Stars