For New Yorkers, there’s perhaps no greater annoyance than a chatty cabbie. There’s a pre-established, customary silence maintained between driver and passenger that is both understood and entirely comfortable. Bearing this in mind, the premise of Christy Hall’s (IT ENDS WITH US, I AM NOT OK WITH THIS) new feature, DADDIO, opens with as cringy concept as the events of its remaining runtime. The film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (where this journalist caught a screening), was heralded as a favorite unmade screenplay in the mid-20-teens, only to be shelved… until now.
Starring (and produced by) Dakota Johnson (FIFTY SHADES OF GREY), credited as “Girlie” (the character is never named), DADDIO showcases what happens when two unlikely strangers are forced to strike up a conversation and share a real, human moment. Her older cab driver, Clark, played by Sean Penn (MILK, MYSTIC RIVER), decides to strike up a conversation with the young woman as she traverses from Laguardia International Airport to her apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. Considering that this commute transpires in the middle of a trafficless night, this would-be thirty-minute drive is somehow, unfortunately, dragged out into an hour and forty-one-minute long feature when the unlikely pair find themselves backed up behind a fender bender (One of many examples of overly obvious symbolism that comes off as preachy and smug – thank God for the flat rate fare to and from NYC airports!).
In fact, the film, which relies almost entirely upon the interior of the cab as its setting, is so full of dialogue delivered with a wink and so much mansplaining that the audience feels as trapped in this traffic jam as its characters. At this runtime, we could have gotten out and walked the rest of the way to Hell’s Kitchen.
JOHNSON’S Girlie (it just irks me that she’s never named when the cab driver is) is returning to New York (and a complicated relationship) after a (also complicated) visit with her estranged sister. Through witty banter that unconvincingly becomes an attempt at thought-provoking musings on life and love, Girlie (I’m sorry, I can’t take this “name” seriously…) processes the choices she has to make as well as her Daddy issues. (OH! THAT’S why it’s called “DADDIO!”) Johnson isn’t given much to work with to start, and frankly, her predicament, while relatable, doesn’t provide enough drama to provoke a nearly two-hour-long movie set in the backseat of a cab.
PENN, as driver Clark (why does he get a name and Girlie doesn’t?!), gives a good enough performance, but the material is so snooze-worthy, and his Queens-born-and-bred accent so put on, listening to his speeches telling Girlie things she doesn’t even know about herself becomes as taxing as the recently proposed NYC Congestion Pricing Program.
The two share chemistry, for sure, but it isn’t enough. The dialogue, meant to be meaningful and progressive (I guess?), is stale and old-timey and generates surprise upon realizing the film is written and directed by a woman. (So much mansplaining!) A cheap eleven-o-clock reveal, while providing Johnson’s only real moment of emotional reach, feels like a tired plot cliche straight out of every monologue book aspiring high school-aged actors use to audition for college theatre programs.
By the end of the film, viewers are as ready to get out of the theater as they are to get out of this cursed cab. Maybe it’s the jaded New Yorker in me, but these unlikely moments of human interaction, while lovely when they happen in real life, are better suited as brief in-person rather than feature-length films.
It’s available in limited theatrical release. Â