Movie Review: Prisoner's Daughter

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B-

A very familiar, but well-made family drama.

This movie's story is nothing we haven't seen before. It revolves around a mother raising her kid by herself when her ex-husband is too much of a drug addict for her to feel comfortable with him around her son. Meanwhile her father, who is been in and out of prison most of her life, wants to start a new leaf and reconnect with his daughter. Such a storyline may be familiar but that doesn't mean it isn't effective. What makes this film work is the three main characters. Each one is very likable and easy to relate to. Also to make them feel more real to us, all three are good people but have flaws that are all too obvious. These flaws never take away from their likability, but only make them seem like real people. This is also helped out very much by wonderful performances from the three leads, Kate Beckinsale, Brian Cox and Christopher Convery. All three are great in these roles and bring a real sense of humanity to it. Catherine Hardwicke is a very capable and talent director (though most people will know her for directing Twilight (2008), I know her best for directing The Nativity Story (2006) (which I feel needs more love around Christmas time)) and she makes each of the major emotional moments work very well here. She understands just how much to lean into the darker parts of the subject matter to make the movie effective but not to dark that it is no longer hopeful. 

This movie does have its flaws though. Its familiarity makes it very obvious what is going to happen next. Also as well as this film handles the subject matter, there are still plenty of movies that do pretty much exactly what this film does even better. It is hard not to think of even better movies even in many scenes that work very well. I am also not a fan of how the ex-husband is handled here. He comes off as too over the top at many points and instead of feeling like a real person, he feels more like a plot device. A film like this needs a villain and someone who cause conflict between our main characters and that seems to be the only reason he is here.

This may not be a film you need to rush out and see, but it is still definitely a good movie.