Fathers & Daughters, film review: A childhood trauma that haunts us all

This film is so bad it made Charlotte O’Sullivan want to bang her head against a radiator
Charlotte Osullivan13 November 2015

Christ, this New York melodrama is bad (crucifixion, by the way, is a theme). It’s as sentimental as director Gabriele Muccino’s 2006 hit The Pursuit of Happyness but witless to boot.

A car crash leaves genius author Jake (Russell Crowe) prone to seizures and his cute daughter Katie (Kylie Rogers) without a mother. He has a rich, bitchy sister-in-law called Elisabeth (Diane Kruger, glugging booze like she’s auditioning for the lead in a Brazilian soap). Naturally, Elisabeth takes the kid while Jake pops off to rehab.

Soon, Jake’s caught up in a fight to retain custody of his child and is being told by his redoubtable agent (Jane Fonda) that his new book is a flop.

In a parallel narrative we see Katie (Amanda Seyfried), now a trainee social worker, attempting to bond with an underclass orphan (Quvenzhane Wallis). She desperately seeks solace in casual sex until she meets Cameron (Aaron Paul), a kind and sensitive writer who approaches her because he worships her dad.

Bad stuff: Katie (Amanda Seyfried) and Cameron (Aaron Paul) Justin Lubin
Justin Lubin

As self-destructive Katie vacillates between Mr Right and Mr Wrongs she says yes to a threesome. The horror!

Crowe, Rogers and Wallis somehow maintain their dignity throughout this piffle. The same can’t be said for Seyfried. If she was hoping Fathers & Daughters was this year’s Under the Skin (like Scarlett Johansson, Seyfried has sexy limbs and the gloopiest of eyeballs), she’s out of luck.

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1/99

Meanwhile, Fonda’s appearance suggests she’s been nipping along to the late Joan Rivers’s plastic surgeon. Her wretchedly perky face is just one of the reasons this movie made me want to bang my head against a radiator. When a central character meets their fate in just this way I was overcome with a single emotion: envy.

Cert 15, 116 mins

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