Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and widower Jake Davis (Russell Crowe) is walking a fraying tightrope of declining mental health whilst trying to single-handedly raise his only daughter Katie (impressively played by newcomer Kylie Rogers).
A weaving dual narrative intersects between the 1980s and present day, where we witness the now 30-year-old Katie (Amanda Seyfried) and her never-ending cycle of self-destruction (casual sex and alcohol abuse to name but two) thanks to a plethora of childhood tribulations. Italian director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) is no stranger when it comes to the tearjerker genre, liberally etching his trademark abundance of foreseeable clichés throughout. An illustrious and sorely underutilised cast includes screen heavyweights such as Octavia Spencer, Jane Fonda and Diane Kruger (who seems to have just walked off the set of Dynasty). Brad Desch’s ham-fisted script contains toe-curling lines such as “we live in the United States of money” and the uproariously sexist “men can survive without love, but not us women”, which firmly cements Fathers and Daughters’ status as a melodrama so mawkish that even Nicholas Sparks would blush at the level of cheese on display.
Running time: 116 mins
Rating: 15
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Aaron Paul, Russell Crowe, Diane Kruger, Ryan Eggold, Jane Fonda, Quvenzhané Wallis, Bruce Greenwood, Octavia Spencer, Janet McTeer, Kylie Rogers.
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