Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson chat for 99 minutes in Daddy…and it’s less flat than you’d expect.
She (Dakota Johnson) takes a taxi upon arrival at the New York airport. He (Sean Penn) is the driver. He speaks a slightly obsolete language, which betrays his age and his generation, his prejudices too. She seems distant elsewhere. Until the driver started a conversation.
She answers his questions while reacting to her lover’s rather crude text messages. The conversation quickly takes a more personal turn, their interactions being instantly placed under the prism of traditional female-male relationships. The generational difference does not take long to make itself felt, as do their experiences, their fears, their prejudices.
He explains to her how men work — “the one who dies with the most toys wins” — and women — “a woman wants to feel sexy and desired” — he dissects her relationship with her lover, gives her “clues” . She describes her work as an IT analyst, the world seen through the prism of the “0s” and “1s” of computer language.
At first glance, the two visions of life are diametrically opposed, even irreconcilable. The journey being filmed in real time (the two actors were in the studio, post-production was responsible for adding the images giving the illusion of movement through the Big Apple), the viewer follows the evolution of the conversation, this spontaneous intimacy that is born between two strangers whose paths will never cross again and which generates unusual confidences.
We get caught up in this game of total honesty, while wondering how far it will continue, especially since the actors manage to convince us and include us in this improbable closed door. Are we disappointed? Yes and no… Yes because we would have liked more, no because this expected “more” would ultimately have been too much.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Daddy is showing in theaters across the province from June 28.
