Two genuinely lovely performances elevate an often-simplistic tale in Penguin Bloom, based on a 2016 memoir of the same name. Two genuinely lovely performances elevate an often-simplistic tale in Penguin Bloom, based on a 2016 memoir of the same name. Telling of the rehabilitation of an Australian athlete, Sam Bloom, who – true to her surname – learns to blossom anew following a terrible injury, this Netflix film is carried aloft by the integrity of leading players Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln. That same quality, alas, isn't always so apparent elsewhere. Screenwriters Harry Cripps and Shaun Grant have gifted the narrative chores to Griffin Murray-Johnston, who plays Noah, the eldest of the Blooms' three young sons. And so it is Noah who informs us of the grievous incident that happened whilst on a family holiday to Thailand in 2013 where a fence gave way and his mum, Sam (Watts), went hurtling to the ground and broke her back "at the bra strap", we are informed. And though the director Glendyn Ivin circles back to that fateful day, most of the movie finds Sam returned home by the Sydney beach adjusting to life in a wheelchair and to the difficulty of simply getting through the day.