Don't be fooled by the names. This movie is a victim of bad merchandising, at least here in Europe. The box that I got the DVD in couldn't be more misleading. In the biggest type that would fit it said "QUENTIN Tarantino" and "JOHNNY KNOXVILLE" and in smaller print "Daltry" (not even the full name of the movie). The name of the director (Katrina Holden Bronson) is completely buried in the small print on the back. And then the tag-line: 'Spreading his seed all over America'. Never was a tag-line less appropriate.
'Jackass' and 'Pulp Fiction' couldn't be farther away. Clearly a case where a movie company wants to cash in on the popularity of two of the people involved. Sure, Tarantino will have made the movie financially possible, so what he says goes, I suppose, but I just find it hard to accept that potential viewers are given wrong expectations.
Actually the movie is a kind-hearted story about the hardships of a fourteen year old girl that is about to loose her mother and find her father (not a spoiler; we are told so in the opening sequence). Knoxville plays the father, Daltry Calhoun, and does so adequately. His acting doesn't stand out, nor is it irritatingly bad. The same can be said of the other actors. Julliette Lewis gives her character, the young widow Flora Flick, the right mix of ignorance and cleverness to be convincing. It's a pity that the part doesn't offer her enough room to show all her qualities. More caricature than character, I'd say.
The person that lifts the entire movie to a higher level is young actress Sophie Traub. She is the smart, friendly teenager June that is struggling with some very grown-up problems. She manages to make you feel sympathy for her without getting melodramatic. The scene in which she tries to get her father's young associate Frankie (Kick Gurry) to tell her everything about French kissing is NOT sleazy, it's plain funny.
This is also a feel-good movie, but not such a lame, predictable one. Okay, the stroke of good luck that her father has, that will make all the problems go away, may not come as a surprise and of course the ugly duckling turns into a pretty swan, but hey, she deserves it.
In short, a movie that was overlooked in the theaters and really deserves a second chance as the endearing dramatic comedy that it is. And as for Sophie Traub; may her acting career be long and fruitful.
Holland, November 2006
'Jackass' and 'Pulp Fiction' couldn't be farther away. Clearly a case where a movie company wants to cash in on the popularity of two of the people involved. Sure, Tarantino will have made the movie financially possible, so what he says goes, I suppose, but I just find it hard to accept that potential viewers are given wrong expectations.
Actually the movie is a kind-hearted story about the hardships of a fourteen year old girl that is about to loose her mother and find her father (not a spoiler; we are told so in the opening sequence). Knoxville plays the father, Daltry Calhoun, and does so adequately. His acting doesn't stand out, nor is it irritatingly bad. The same can be said of the other actors. Julliette Lewis gives her character, the young widow Flora Flick, the right mix of ignorance and cleverness to be convincing. It's a pity that the part doesn't offer her enough room to show all her qualities. More caricature than character, I'd say.
The person that lifts the entire movie to a higher level is young actress Sophie Traub. She is the smart, friendly teenager June that is struggling with some very grown-up problems. She manages to make you feel sympathy for her without getting melodramatic. The scene in which she tries to get her father's young associate Frankie (Kick Gurry) to tell her everything about French kissing is NOT sleazy, it's plain funny.
This is also a feel-good movie, but not such a lame, predictable one. Okay, the stroke of good luck that her father has, that will make all the problems go away, may not come as a surprise and of course the ugly duckling turns into a pretty swan, but hey, she deserves it.
In short, a movie that was overlooked in the theaters and really deserves a second chance as the endearing dramatic comedy that it is. And as for Sophie Traub; may her acting career be long and fruitful.
Holland, November 2006