Johan Nayar

Wishman has to be one of the biggest surprises of 2019. The story follows the real-life events of Frank Shankwitz, the founder of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and directed by Theo Davies in his second feature. It is one of the stand out feel good films in recent times despite going back into the heartbreak that Frank, the protagonist, experienced as a youth. *SPOILER ALERT* The tale begins in the distant past as a young Frank Shankwitz, living in a trailer, suffers the neglect of an emotionally unstable mother who tears him away from a caring father by relocating. The story introduces us to Frank as a man, a police officer who lives freely and unattached to any one woman. Even though he is care-free, he still has a clear moral compass, and his partner carries out an act of police brutality on an incapacitated criminal. An act to which Frank is framed as the perpetrator. These two threads of the young Frank and the ongoing troubles being falsely accused of the brutality meet with a third thread meeting with a young boy, Michael Allen, who is terminally ill. He has a dying wish, which is to become a police officer. We see Frank develop a fondness for the boy and this friendship develops through the rest of the film. As the plot builds towards the climax, we get to see how Frank turns his life around, and in turn finally take on even greater responsibility culminating in the idea to create the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It’s definitely the best feel good film of 2019.