‘Prisoner’s Daughter’: Catherine Hardwicke’s Latest Gets Out of Jail and Into Melodrama
Dennis Harvey Film Critic Her career hobbled by uninspired material since the commercial bonanza of “Twilight’s” first screen installment 15 years ago, Catherine Hardwicke at first appears to be back on firmer terra with “Prisoner’s Daughter.” Its mix of adult dysfunction and coming-of-age pains against a downscale milieu (here working-class Las Vegas) recalls the director’s strong initial features, “Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown.” But this drama, with Brian Cox as a terminally ill ex-con reunited with daughter Kate Beckinsale and her son, soon reveals itself as a formulaic contrivance heading towards predictable strife and tearjerking. Competently handled and well-cast, it’s nonetheless held back from generating much authentic emotion by the too-familiar beats of Mark Bacci’s script. Vertical Entertainment is opening the feature, which premiered at TIFF last fall, on limited U.S. theatrical screens this Friday. It’ll doubtless do better in release to home formats, those dates as yet TBA.