Prisoner’s Daughter

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, Prisoner’s Daughter follows a criminal (Brian Cox’s Max) serving hard time as he’s diagnosed with terminal cancer and released into the custody of his struggling daughter (Kate Beckinsale’s Maxine) – with the narrative detailing the degree to which Max eventually impacts the lives of Maxine and her bullied son (Christopher Convery’s Ezra). It’s decidedly familiar territory that’s employed to sporadically watchable yet mostly tiresome effect by Hardwicke, as the filmmaker, armed with Mark Bacci’s screenplay, delivers a paint-by-numbers drama that contains exceedingly few elements worth embracing or getting excited about – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by an ongoing emphasis on hopelessly overwrought, melodramatic happenings. (There is, for example, a recurring subplot involving Ezra’s mustache-twirling ex that’s never anything less than completely tedious.) It’s clear, then, that Prisoner’s Daughter‘s periodically tolerable vibe is due almost entirely to Cox’s predictably stellar performance, as the actor generally injects the relentlessly routine narrative with short-lived bursts of energy and authenticity. (Max’s brutally honest talk with Ezra about his deadbeat father is an obvious highlight, ultimately.) By the time the predictable (yet admittedly satisfying) climax rolls around, Prisoner’s Daughter has cemented its place as a woefully misguided endeavor that feels much longer than its 98 minutes.

** out of ****