Title: Penguin Bloom
MPAA Rating: TV-14
Director: Glendyn Ivin
Starring: Naomi Watts, Griffin Murray-Johnston, Andrew Lincoln
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

What It Is: Sam Bloom (Watts) was a hopeful mother of 3 kids. She and her husband Cameron (Andrew) take their brood on a beautiful vacation. It is here that disaster strikes. A fall leads to paralysis for Sam. A life-changing and unexpected event that shapes her whole family’s future. Depressed and broken there isn’t much that brings joy to her existence. That is until a strange little bird appears and brings with them happiness, for both Sam and her brood.

What We Think: Most if not all of this film relies on your reaction to the attempts by director Glendyn Ivin and writers Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps to make you cry. If that doesn’t work, and for me, it did not. That being said there are some moments that show the talent Naomi Watts has. She’s very good and Andrew Lincoln proves he’s more than a one-note TV actor. I think perhaps the weakest part of the film is the script itself. It’s far too run of the mill and lacks any form of pomp. That pomp would’ve lent itself nicely to a rather bland affair.

Our Grade: C+, This is a perfectly fine film with good performances. Ones that don’t stand out as much because of the obvious script issues and a lack of consistent pacing. These were easily fixable issues that cause the film to be more of a struggle to get through than it should be. When looking at this there are just some things in it that don’t totally hit for me. Not in the way that it seemed they wanted. A perfectly acceptable film for Netflix but overall a mediocre offering on the whole. A film that tries but fails to cause the emotional stir it wants.