One of the most refreshing genre hybrids in quite some time
It may still be early in the year, but it’s late enough to have a bit of a semi-vent about what a shame it was that the Ant Timpson-directed dark comedy/thriller Come to Daddy didn’t get the treatment it deserved. Released in the doldrums of February after receiving rave reviews at film festivals, this slightly macabre movie starring Elijah Wood not only proves itself to be a consistently surprising screenplay, but also a lesson in genre-bending. Maybe it was the wrong distributor (in an ideal world, this title would have been swooped up by Neon instead of Saban Films), but Come to Daddy should have been the kind of release that generates excitement among genre fans and prompts the buzz and word of mouth reserved for only the most special and hype-worthy of titles. Whatever the case, it’s safe to say that Come to Daddy is not yet forgotten, but rather is still waiting to be discovered.
The story centers on a 30-something year old man named Norval Greenwood (Wood), who has traveled from L.A. to the depths of Northern California to reconnect with the father he hasn’t seen since he was small, and the horrific events which result. In revisiting the film a couple of months after its initial release, I was struck by how each act of Come to Daddy takes on a different tone while maintaining its story’s core and through-line from start to finish. What follows is a breaking down of each act and how they all conspire to create a collectively invigorating film experience.
**Spoilers Abound**
Act 1: Awkward Comedy
Come to Daddy has been sold as a comedy. This is true enough, particularly in the film’s first third. From the moment Norval and his father (Stephen McHattie) meet up, there’s one hilarious scene after another as the two men clash through their cultures and play a sort of cat-and-mouse game with each other. When his father suggests that the two of them take a selfie on a balcony overlooking the sea, Norval agrees and hands his father the phone. Immediately after being told by his son to be careful because the phone was designed by Lorde, the device falls out of his father’s hands and into the sea. “I shouldn’t have had that second beer for breakfast,” Norval’s father says. “There were only 20 of those in the entire world,” says the stunned Norval. “Well, now there’s only 19,” replies his father as he stumbles away. The comedy starts to favor the darkness somewhat in a later scene which sees the two men having dinner. After Norval’s father offers him some wine, Norval refuses before explaining that he has alcohol dependency issues that led to a suicide attempt at one point and how he’s worked hard at sobriety. It’s a revealing character moment expertly delivered by Wood. His father absorbs this information with an understanding and accepting look on his face before slowly pouring red wine into his glass up to the rim. The way the camera holds on Norval’s face as the glass fills is the kind of black comedy that’s hard to master, but which the film manages so well. Unlike the laughs found in the remainder of the film, the comedy found in the first part of Come to Daddy comes from the awkwardness of real life. The painful humor of a father and son meeting together after decades apart is well-explored here.
Act 2: Character Drama
The first act of the film ends with daddy having a heart attack as he’s about to lunge at Norval with a meat cleaver. The heart attack kills him instantly, leaving a shocked and frightened Norval to pick up the pieces. While the local paramedic (Madeline Sami) informs him that his father must remain at home due to limited space at the morgue, Norval understandably feels uneasy. Yet we see him continuously venturing into the spare room which contains his father, staring at the large black body bag and even talking to the body itself. It’s here when Come to Daddy morphs into a character drama, with Norval wandering around his father’s large rustic house trying to piece together who this man was. There’s also visible grief on the character’s part as he must slowly accept that he will never get to know the man he called his father, and that any hope of understanding and reconciliation is forever dashed. As an audience, we can’t help but feel for him. We feel for him even as Norval lies dazed and somewhat broken by the experience; the culmination of a life spent wondering about his father and why he left. With little left to lose in his eyes, Norval drinks the wine his father offered him the night before, falling off the wagon as a result of his pain. Watching him drunkenly laugh as he looks out towards the ocean, there is indeed pain and a feeling of being lost which he suspects will be with him for the rest of his life.
Act 3: Twisty Thriller
Come to Daddy remains somber and introspective for as long as it needs to, beautifully conveying the loss and confusion Norval feels at what he hoped would be a time of answers and reconciliation. But the film is a genre piece and one which is eager to explore a multitude of them, which it does winningly. When Norval discovers that the man he believed to be his father was actually a stranger and that his real father (Martin Donovan) is tied up in the basement, the groundwork for a thriller full of twists and turns is laid. It turns out that Norval’s father took part in a kidnapping scheme with some shady characters before meeting his future son’s mother and making off with the entire ransom in the process. Call it unfortunate that a visit from his long-lost son has happened to coincide with the return of his former partners, who are determined to recoup their share of the money by whatever means necessary. As Norval is hit with one revelation after another, he finds himself engaging in a variety of dangerous situations, the kind which a wannabe Coachella-esque DJ from Beverly Hills never pictured himself in. The third act of Come to Daddy offers up its share of violent moments, some explicit, others shocking in their frankness and simplicity. Yet none of these moments ever feel exploitative thanks to the amount of lunacy within each of them. Indeed, there are more chuckles and feelings of surprise than scrunched up faces looking away when it comes to certain later scenes. As invested as the film is in exploring the thriller side of the story, Come to Daddy never forgets about its main character and ensures that it shows the evolution of Norval and his changed feelings towards his father all the way through.
I have often sung the praises of Elijah Wood’s career as a leading man in recent years. The lunacy of the horror comedy Cooties, his variations of fear in Grand Piano, the desperation he exudes in Open Windows, and the manic craziness of his work in I Don’t Belong in this World Anymore all show an actor who willingly embraces material that is decidedly off-center, resulting in some of his best work. Come to Daddy continues this trend and gives Wood an even greater opportunity. Here the actor proves his ability to venture into the emotional, human side of a character while also managing to provide a showcase as he takes Norval from one genre to another in what remains one of the year’s most unforgettable releases.
Come to Daddy is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate.