Frankie Starlight

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Frankie Starlight ★★½ 1995 (R)

Bernadette (Parillaud) leaves France after WWII, smuggled aboard an American troop ship. By the time the ship reaches Ireland, she's pregnant and gives birth to her dwarf son, Frankie, in Dublin. She's taken in by the family of customs officer Jack Kelly (Byrne), who instills in the boy a lifelong love of the stars. The adult Frankie (Walker) becomes a celebrity when he writes a novel combining his obsession with the cosmos and his mother's erotic history. Raymo adapts from his 1993 novel “The Dork of Cork.” Great performances by both Pentony and Walker as the child and adult Frankies. 100m/C VHS . IR Corban Walker, Alan Pentony, Gabriel Byrne, Anne Parillaud, Matt Dillon, Georgina Cates, Dearbhla Molloy, Niall Toibin, Rudi Davies; D: Michael Lindsay-Hogg; W: Chet Raymo, Ronan O'Leary; C: Paul Laufer; M: Elmer Bernstein.