There's a thin line between feel-good entertainment and hokum. While Penguin Bloom never quite slips into the latter, it comes awfully close.

While it's all a bit on the nose, that nose will be running, and hankies coming.

Watts is such a chameleon of an actress, such a pro at slipping into a vast array of roles without drawing attention to the mechanics of her work, that we almost take for granted how damn good she is - and she delivers beautiful and resonant work as Sam.

The heartwarming fuzzy feelings that the genre is built on never take flight for Penguin Bloom.