Johnson, Penn excel in thoughtful taxicab drama
Screenwriter Christy Hall makes her directorial debut with Daddio, a script she originally conceived of as a stage play. That theatrical quality is evident in the film, an emotionally rich two-character study that takes place in near real time. Featuring stellar performances from Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, Daddio is the sort of understated but affecting drama that often gets lost in the summer blockbuster shuffle but deserves to be seen.
Johnson plays an unnamed young woman who orders a cab at JFK airport after returning home to New York from visiting her half-sister in Oklahoma. Sean Penn is Clark, the cab driver assigned the fare. What follows, as Clark and the woman he calls “girlie” chat in the hour-plus ride to her mid-town home, is the type of taxicab confessional that we’ve seen in movies like Driving Miss Daisy, Green Book and the French film Driving Madeleine that came out earlier this year. As in those films, here we get two characters from different walks of life sharing their stories with each other, and become more open to ideas, experiences, and feelings as a result.
Johnson’s character is involved with a married man, who texts her graphic, suggestive text messages throughout the cab ride. She seems repelled by these one moment and intrigued the next, and we understand that she’s conflicted and worried about the relationship. Clark can’t see what she’s receiving, and she doesn’t tell him. But he intuits her situation and, as a twice-divorced older man who cheated on his wives, offers the young woman his perspective on her situation.
The pair’s conversation mostly touches on relationships – with lovers, partners, and spouses, yes, but also with siblings and parents. Delving deep into issues of gender and power dynamics with candor and sometimes painful honesty, the two draw each other out in ways that seem authentic and never forced. Both Johnson and Penn give some of the best performances of their career, and Hall’s smart, thought-provoking screenplay is the perfect medium for these two to flex their acting chops. The trio should be proud of what they’ve created here, and should expect to see their film on many year-end Best Of lists. I know it will be on mine.
—————————-
Daddio is in theaters now.
