Rob Reviews "My Penguin Friend"

In 2016, the story of João Perei de Souza went viral.  A fisherman in Brazil, he finds a penguin who is injured and ventures away from his muster (and yes, I had to look up what a group of penguins is called) on the beach and nurtures it back to health.  The bond that they formed and maintained for a number of years captivated the world, and that story is now brought to the big screen by Brazilian director David Schurmann in My Penguin Friend.

The great Jean Reno plays the main character alongside Adriana Barraza (Blue Beetle) as his wife, Maria.  Their chemistry alone is worth the price of admission as a couple who is trying to find a new normal even years after tragedy befalls them, and with the discovery of this creature they are able to work through their sadness in their own ways.  João takes to the penguin quickly while Maria takes more time, but the more time they spend with the animal, the warmer she gets if for no other reason than to see how it is positively affecting her husband.  The film is mostly theirs, but there is also a great supporting cast that helps fill in some of the holes of the story that cannot be told by the main characters in order to keep things moving along nicely.

Reno always delivers, and My Penguin Friend is no exception.  The longer this film went, the more it reminded me of the animal films of the 1970s done by Disney without the slapstick elements.  What I found fascinating (that sets this apart from those films) is that outside of about a five-minute stretch of time, there is no antagonist here outside of the elements themselves.  No government agency that looms over their home, no animals on the hunt to terrify them; just the relationship that this penguin not only has with João but also with some scientists thousands of miles away who study the colony where it came from.

I really did enjoy My Penguin Friend and hope that while it may only get a limited theatrical run due to the other films being released in the same time frame, it really should get its due any way you can get a hold of it.  It is the kind of film that can be enjoyed in all formats and comes with all the feels, so don’t let this one get by you!