Prisoner's Daughter
A prisoner with terminal cancer is released on compassionate grounds so that he can live with the daughter who never wants to see him again….
Filial affliction: Kate Beckinsale and Brian Cox
It’s one of those days. Maxine, a single mom, loses her job just as her son, Ezra, is suspended from school and that she learns her father is terminally sick. And, just in case the scenarist Mark Bacci didn’t leave anything out, Maxine is accosted by her ex-husband, Tyler, a drug addict. All on the same day. What is novel about Prisoner's Daughter is that it’s set on the wrong side of Las Vegas (where the poor people live) – and that its two American protagonists are played by a couple of award-winning Brits. Fresh off the success of Succession, Brian Cox provides his usual granular presence, injecting realism into lines that have none. Kate Beckinsale is more improbable as a Nevada housewife who can’t seem to hold down a job because her drug-addled ex keeps on popping out of the woodwork at inopportune moments. But then there’s her son Ezra, who suffers from epilepsy, delightfully limned by Christopher Convery and who gets to say things like, disbelievingly, “who ends a sentence with a dangling modifier?” So, yeah, he’s a smart kid.
This is ripe daytime TV melodrama, but under the earnest direction of Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, Twilight) it’s not as ludicrous as it could be. In fact, there’s something enormously emotive about a bad man with just five months to live trying to make amends for his past indiscretions. And Brian Cox is just the man to turn Maxine’s life around, a life that is definitely in need of turning. Of course, Maxine resists every outstretched offer of help, until circumstances force into such a tight corner that she can but reach out to him.
Hardwicke adds an edgy, handheld cinéma-vérité to the proceedings that dampens the soap opera, while nestling comfortably on the dependable shoulders of Cox. And it’s the attraction of opposites that gives the scenes between the Scottish actor and the young Convery a touching appeal. Unfortunately, the stereotype that is Ezra’s father (rock singer Tyson Ritter) really cheapens what little authenticity Hardwicke has managed to corral.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Brian Cox, Christopher Convery, Jon Huertas, Ernie Hudson, Tyson Ritter, Chuti Tiu, Angel Parker, Mark Kubr.
Dir Catherine Hardwicke, Pro Sam Okun, Marina Grasic and David Haring, Screenplay Mark Bacci, Ph Noah Greenberg, Pro Des Pele Kudren, Ed Glen Scantlebury and Stephanie Kaznocha, Music Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, Costumes Marie France.
Capstone Global/Oakhurst Entertainment/Smokn Productions/Pasaca Entertainment/Great Point Media-Vertigo Releasing.
100 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 30 June 2023. UK Rel: 4 July 2023. Available on Prime Video. Cert. 15.
