Displaying items by tag: Christy Hall

DADDIO

US, 2024, 100 minutes, Colour.

Dakota Johnson, Sean Penn.

Directed by Christy Hall.

There are many styles of presenting a two hander drama. And there are many films set within vehicles, especially cars, like the British Locke and several of the films by Iranian director, Abbas Kierostami. And the screenplays provide material which could easily be adapted for theatrical presentation.

Writer Christy Hall (also writer of the screenplay for It Ends With Us), directs her first film. And her two players are Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn.

The film is persuasively photographed by veteran cinematographer, Phaedon Papamichael, and the editing is skilful, moving from face-to-face, the use of the rear vision mirror, the driver turning his head, the to-ing and fro-ing of conversations, the camera resting during pauses for reflection.

Dakota Johnson is (strangely/provocatively) referred to as Girlie. In her 20s, arriving at Kennedy airport, and eventually getting a taxi to go home, she encounters Sean Penn as a driver with decades of experience. He notes she doesn’t immediately go for her phone for the trip, begins a conversation with her, she responding. He has been driving taxis so long that he has become something of character spotter, noting clues, interested, capacity for sympathy, and empathy.

The conversation takes place during the drive to Manhattan, halted by an accident, giving plenty of time for the conversation to develop. Girlie is polite, interest aroused, responding to conversation questions. Clark, the driver’s name though he would prefer Vinnie and at the end would opt for Mikey, is very direct, frank in dialogue and vocabulary, not so many filters.

What happens is gradual revelations, Girlie and her background in Oklahoma, present relationship, family issues, memories. Clark is also able to talk about himself, his marriages, his behaviour, his opinions on male status and treatment of women, women and their responses. Each of them begins to vie with telling episodes – but, just when we think they have done some self-revelation which has been worthwhile, Girlie tells a much more telling personal experience.

The cab acts as something of a therapy room, a confessional, and the audience realising that everybody needs to surface their issues, be able to articulate, appreciate an empathetic listener, enabling some kind of salvation/redemption through confession and an experience of some kind of healing.

1. The impact of the drama set within a taxi, two characters, conversations, sympathy, clashes, empathy?
2. The airport, the taxi line, the roads from the airport, traffic accident and block, the visuals of New York at night? The musical score underlying the conversation?
3. The performances, the writing, the ordinary beginning, initial interactions, gradual revelation of character, truths, lies, stories, becoming deeper, and the final story and its impact?
4. Calling the female character, Girlie? Dakota Johnson’s performance, delivery of lines, quiet times, the effect of the conversation on her? Her story, Oklahoma, harsh background, half sister, the impact of her father, and the separation, memories of his shaking her hand, leaving? The work and study, programming? The relationship, the phone communication, his being married, the comment on his wife, the three children, the texting and the children going to bed, the issue of whether he loved her not?
5. Her response to clerk, the cab driver, years of experience, pleasant, listening, pleased that his passenger did not initially isolate herself with her phone, the gradual involvement, the rival stories and revelations, expressing her bucket list, the herbs, diving from the Greek cliff… ? Her final story to Clsrk? The sudden depth of experience, her expressing it, profound, the pregnancy, decisions, concealing, the blood, the miscarriage, the fetus leaving her, her not leaving the fetus? Her final text to the lover, her uncertainty?
6. Clark, 20 years, Sean Penn’s performance, appearance, worldly -wise, chatting with passengers, reading people, commenting, few filters on his conversation? His eliciting responses from Girlie? His listening, silences, questions, challenges? Gradual revelation of his own story, frank, meeting his first wife, blonde, beautiful, not intelligent, but optimistic, his enjoying moments with her, her getting older, putting on weight, h is is further affairs, second wife, his attitudes towards women? His attitude towards men, summing up the lover, the use of the word love or not, reading his character, his analysis of men, their attitudes towards women, vying with each other in terms of position, masculine status?
7. The impact of the final story on him, her arriving home, his telling her of his preference for the name, Vinnie, instead of Clark, but finally preferring Mikey?
8. The cab as the equivalent of a therapy room, confessional, highlighting the need for people to communicate, to reflect in-depth, to surface responses, to express them, the possibilities for healing?