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TIFF 2020 – Penguin Bloom Review

Flightless and Disappointing

  • Brendan Frye Brendan Frye
  • October 29, 2020
  • 2 Minute Read
TIFF 2020: Penguin Bloom Review
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Score: 7 / 10

When I first heard Penguin Bloom would be at TIFF 2020, I was excited. It was a film that garnered some buzz in the ramp-up to the festival, and it had a solid cast, and an interesting based-on-a-true-story premise. Telling the story of the Bloom family as they overcome tragedy with the help of a feathered friend sounds like it could be a winner. Sadly, despite some strong performances, Penguin Bloom falls flat, leaving little depth and a lot of wasted potential.

Following the events and story behind the real-life Bloom family, Penguin Bloom brings Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead) together as the parents of the Australian based family. An accident in Thailand leaves Sam (Naomi Watts) paralyzed from the waist down and her life is in tatters. As a lover of fitness and surfing, this accident crushes her motivation and drive to push herself in life.

Penguin Bloom starts by giving a sense of how her life has lost its meaning since the accident. When one of her sons finds a Magpie on the beach needing aid, the life of the Bloom family changes for the better, with Sam finally finding the will to push through her injury and find a new vigour she never thought possible.

Penguin Bloom takes what could be a memorable, and engaging story and squanders it under sappy concepts and half-baked ideas that never feel lived in or genuine. The story of the Bloom family has captivated countless people, yet director Glendyn Ivin crafts this movie as it if were made for the Hallmark channel, with all the corny false emotion that entails.

Final Thoughts:

While Naomi Watts delivers a captivating performance, it can’t save Penguin Bloom from feeling much more than a shallow family film that oozes wasted potential.
Brendan Frye

Brendan Frye

Brendan has over a decade working as a journalist and EIC. He has covered festivals and conferences, writen and interviewed about the industries the biggest names, and is always excited to see how the medium changes with new technology and fresh voices.
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TIFF 2020 - Penguin Bloom Review

Penguin Bloom

Director(s): Glendyn Ivin
Cast: Rachel House, Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln, Jacki Weaver
Studio: Made Up Stories
Running Time: 95 min

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