MOVIE REVIEW : Stars Make Sweet, Quirky ‘Starlight’ Sparkle

There’s a natural diminishment that occurs in the transference of autobiography to movie, just because so much about memoir has to do with personality. And personality on film, as we all know, is the exclusive domain of the actor.

So it was Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s good fortune to have found and cast Corban Walker and Alan Pentony, two dwarfs who’d never acted before, as the older and younger versions of the title character in “Frankie Starlight.” As Frank Bois--a writer whose adult life is intercut with recollections of his rather unorthodox upbringing in Ireland and Texas--both Walker and Pentony are the reasons to watch. Their emotional candor, their freshness and their endearing personalities make this quirky, quasi-magical little film the sweet thing it is.

But while Lindsay-Hogg--who has directed music videos, Beatles (“Let It Be”) and the underappreciated “The Object of Beauty” with John Malkovich and Andie MacDowell--gets wonderful performances out of Walker and Pentony, he fares less well with others, notably Anne Parillaud. As Frankie’s mother, Bernadette--who flees postwar France for Ireland by becoming the sole source of recreation on a U.S. troop ship--Parillaud is paralyzed. She seems at times to need a nap.

She has a lot on her mind, though. Penniless, pregnant and deportable, she eludes immigration officer Jack Kelly (Gabriel Byrne), but then becomes his lover--an activity witnessed by Kelly’s deeply traumatized daughter Emma (Georgina Cates). Crises ensue, but Kelly’s very understanding wife, Effa (Dearbhla Molloy), insists that Bernadette and the infant Frankie come live in their home--where Jack instills in Frankie a knowledge and love of the stars. He also provides the unqualified affection a dwarf child--any child, for that matter--needs.

There is a sense, though, that detail from Chet Raymo’s novel “The Dork From Cork”--which inspired this film--has been lost in the translation. Intercut with Frankie’s childhood memories--which includes his brief relocation to Texas with Bernadette and her cowboy lover Terry Klout (Matt Dillon), an ex-GI who’d been aboard that troop ship--are the publication of the adult Frank’s book, a combination of memoir, astronomy and his mother’s life story. There are some truly funny moments between Frank and his agent Handy Paige (the celebrated Irish comedian Niall Toibin), which make one wish to linger in the present rather than revisit Frankie’s past.

But it’s a back-and-forth progression and a hot-and-cold experience for most of “Frankie Starlight,” which ends with Frank’s reunion with the adult Emma Kelly (Rudi Davies), and a miraculous, feel-good finale that perhaps only a non-actor/actor like Walker could pull off.

* MPAA rating: R, for language and sexuality. Times guidelines: some adult situations, but generally inoffensive.

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‘Frankie Starlight’

Corban Walker: Frank Bois

Alan Pentony: Young Frank

Anne Parillaud: Bernadette

Matt Dillon: Terry Klout

Gabriel Byrne: Jack Kelly

Niall Toibin: Handy Paige

A Fine Line Features production, released by Fine Line. Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Producer Noel Pearson. Screenplay Chet Raymo and Ronan O’Leary. Cinematographer Paul Laufer. Editor Ruth Foster. Costumes Joan Bergin. Music Elmer Bernstein. Production design Frank Conway. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

* In limited release at Landmark’s NuWilshire, 1314 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 394-8099; Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (213) 848-3500; Edwards South Coast Village, 1561 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, (714) 540-0594.