Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Glendyn Ivin, Foxtel.
It may seem unimaginable, but the Bloom family narrative is true – and it’s uplifting!
The film tells the true story of SpinalCure Ambassador Sam Bloom (played by Naomi Watts) who suffers a near-fatal spinal cord injury that leaves her paralysed from the waist down. As a result, her family’s world is turned upside down.
During a family vacation in Thailand in 2013, Sam (Watts, 21 Grams, The Impossible) falls off a hotel balcony and breaks her T6 thoracic vertebrae resulting in paralysis from the waist down. Back home in Australia, she struggles to adjust to life in a wheelchair.
Before her accident, Sam was an avid outdoorswoman and surfer living a peaceful existence in a house overlooking the beach in NSW. She and her photographer husband, Cameron (Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead, Love Actually) enjoyed an adventurous life of sports and travel with their three rambunctious young boys: Noah (Griffin Murray-Johnston), Reuben (Felix Cameron) and Oli (Abe Clifford-Barr).
Everyone including Sam’s mother Jan (Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook) is struggling to adjust to their new situation when an unlikely ally enters their world in the form of an injured baby magpie they name Penguin.
It was 11-year-old Noah who brought home the black-and-white coloured chick. As Noah, the film’s narrator, says: “Everything was pretty much perfect. But then last year happened.” His words tug at the heartstrings: “It’s like Mum was stolen from us.”
It’s truly heartwarming to see how people are able to overcome adversity and recover from misfortune to become amazing achievers – all with the help of loved ones – along with their determination and perseverance. It’s plainly noticeable and openly emotional.
A feel-good formula still manages to motivate and impress, thanks to some remarkable imagery and stalwart performances, primarily from Naomi Watts.
With a screenplay written by Harry Cripps and Shaun Grant, Penguin Bloom is the second feature directed by Glendyn Ivin (The Cry, Safe Harbour, Seven Types of Ambiguity).
