Therein lies one of the film’s greatest flaws. While everyone loves a good love story, this rather haphazard one ends up completely overshadowing a father's love for his daughters. Instead of focusing on legal strategy, Monty and Julia spend the majority of the time flirting, drinking and trying to figure out if a relationship between a rich girl from corporate America and a poor-but-lovable guy from the 'hood could ever work.
Furthermore, Perry lacks subtlety when creating characters. Instead of painting with a few shades of gray, he only seems to use black and white. I loved that Monty isn't the typical deadbeat dad that’s so often portrayed in films. Yet, his ex-wife is so horrible in comparison (she actually offers her 12-year-old daughter alcohol, encourages her boyfriend’s demands for her to sell drugs at her school and tells her to give up her fairy tale dreams) that the story lacks any sort of balance, let alone authenticity.
SPOILER ALERT: Even worse is the conflicting set of values. While we get the clear impression from the beginning that violence isn’t the way to handle problems or that violent behavior toward children shouldn’t be tolerated, we’re supposed to root for Monty when he takes the law in his own hands and tries to take out the villains by slamming his car into theirs head-on, pulling them out of the car and savagely beating them as the neighborhood cheers alongside him? Was that what the pastor was talking about during the church service shown earlier when he kept preaching about good things coming for those (i.e. Monty) who’ve gone through bad times? I think not.
While “Daddy’s Little Girls” could’ve been an intriguing and uplifting story, any potential was lost in hackneyed writing and heavy-handed, but inconsistent moralizing. And ultimately, despite Perry’s good intentions, the audience deserves far more.
AUDIENCE: Older teens and up
CAUTIONS:
