Let’s be perfectly honest: you can overcomplicate things. You can do too much. If you make a movie called My Penguin Friend and it’s based on the real-life story of a fisherman who befriends a penguin, what are you going to do? If you haven’t made it saccharine and sentimental, you’re making the wrong movie.
The penguin is rescued from an oil spoil and the fisherman is rescued from the heartbreak of his past. We do not need any grandiose ideas here. Those are the ideas. And they are clear and they work because they are true.
As critics, we can dig in too hard on earnest works of humanity. That seems to me to be the only goal of making a movie called My Penguin Friend. If it’s anything less than an enchanting human interest story, you’ve failed. That’s entirely what My Penguin Friend is. That’s all it is. And that’s not a bad thing.
Brazilian director David Schurmann shoots the English-language film as though he is constantly in awe of everything. It’s awe-shucks and it’s charming as hell. Jean Reno stars as fisherman Jaoa and he’s so damn empathetic. There is a South American flair to it despite the English, even if it leaves you wanting for a Portuguese Penguin picture.
I love this simple little uncomplicated film. There’s nothing to it. Exactly what the job called for. It’s a family movie. You don’t always need to think. Sometimes a man and a penguin just must become friends, and we should feel great about it.