Penguin Bloom

On holiday in Thailand with her family, Sam Bloom leaned on a rusted hotel balcony rail, it gave way, and she fell around six metres onto concrete. Her skull fractured, her lungs ruptured, her spine broke in several places and she was left paralysed from the chest down. For a surfer who lived through movement, the loss was never only physical. Three months after she came home, her eleven year old son Noah found an injured baby magpie. The family named it Penguin for its black and white feathers. The film's smartest choice is refusing to make the bird a miracle. It is simply a second creature in the house trying to heal. Naomi Watts plays her without a scrap of self pity, with Andrew Lincoln as her husband and Jacki Weaver as her mother. Glendyn Ivin leans hard on swelling music, and the final stretch speeds up in a way that hides how slow real recovery is. Who it is for: viewers who want a true story family drama. Who it is not for: anyone tired of illness and recovery narratives.