DADDIO – Review

Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson star in a two-hander that takes place in a New York City cab, as cabbie Penn drives a young passenger (Dakota Johnson) to her mid-town home from the airport. Along the way, they engage in a witty, sharp back-and-forth conversation, where the beautiful young woman holds her own against the talkative, opinionated older cabbie. Their conversation is wide-ranging at first but eventually centers on the relationships between men and women. Almost from the start, she is getting texts from her boyfriend, obnoxious horny, drunken texts, that she seems mostly reluctant to engage with. These two very different people, the older cabbie with old school attitudes and a young successful woman, chat, trade views, share secrets in a kind of competition, and so bare their souls to each other, all during one long night-time ride.

The title is unfortunate, and puzzlingly so. Written and directed by playwright Christy Hall, this finely-acted drama may bring to mind the classic BEFORE SUNRISE and BEFORE SUNSET, a wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation that takes place between strangers, but in this case, it is not two young people gradually falling in love but two very different people sharing secrets and thoughts on love. These strangers not only differ in generations but in background and economically. Instead, this conversation is between strangers who not only differ in age but in background and economically. The older taxi driver played by Sean Penn is quintessential New Yorker cabbie, who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen and has the swagger and confidence one expects. He flirts with his pretty young passenger, complementing her that he knows she’s someone who knows how to handle herself and paying her the New York compliment of telling her he can tell she’s a New Yorker. She does indeed know how to handle herself, keeping aloof but trading in snappy banter, all with the confidence of a woman well aware of the effect her beauty has on men and how to navigate through their flirtations. The young woman (who has no name in this drama, and is listed in the credits as “Girlie”) could choose not to converse with this motor-mouth caveman but confidently matches him line for line, which is kind of fun to watch.

That banter is pointed and witty, and sharpened by an underlying sexual tension, on his part. Penn’s cabbie is good at reading people and asking probing questions, and quickly guesses her texting lover is married. The conversation turns philosophical, but then more personal, and the pair start a kind of competition, of revealing secrets and unexpected personal experiences. The revealed secrets creates an equally unexpected bond grows between them.

Eventually, the talk drifts into the differing expectations of men and women when it comes to romantic relationships, and Penn’s cabbie starts to hold forth on what men want from women, different things from wives and mistresses. As he expounds on patriarchy, viewers might want to remind themselves that that the writer/director of this drama is in fact a woman. That ship will right itself when Johnson’s character weighs in, and the contrast between their viewpoints sharpens the tensions in underlying the conversation. Both characters reveal secrets about their past and their personal lives, in the way one might only do with a stranger one never expects to see again.

The conversation is not profound but the banter between them is entertaining, and a rare fine showcase for both actors. Sean Penn, once a heralded actor, as appeared in lesser roles, and has done his off-screen reputation little good from time to time, in recent years but this role serves as a reminder how good an actor he really is. Likewise, the role gives Dakota Johnson a chance to show

off her considerable acting chops, something not revealed in recent lesser roles.

The acting and the script are both strong, which they have to be for this kind of drama, but writer/director Christy Hall also keeps things visually interesting, not small achievement for a story that all takes place in a cab, apart from brief scenes at the start and end. We see inside the cab and outside it, but rarely the whole thing. Instead the shots are mostly tight, and largely point of view for either character. The focus is more often on Dakota Johnson’s character, and often in extreme close-up, particularly of her eyes. We get shots of her view out the windows, of the cabbie through the glass, close-ups of his hands as his fingers drum on the steering wheel. The varied and tight shots keep the film more engaging visually than one might expect. Rather than forcing the drama to “open up,” the film keeps things close in and focused, which does more to make it less stagy than added exterior shots would have.

Curiously, Dakota Johnson’s character has no name, although she is clearly the major focus of the story, more than Sean Penn’s talkative cabbie). Penn’s character gives his name as Clark, a name he clearly does not feel comfortable with, and says he prefers Vinnie, although we are sure no one calls him that. We get insights on both characters, their inner lives and past experiences, but the overall theme is romantic relationships rather than something broader. It’s universal, sure, but it also makes the whole discussion feel less significant than it could have been.

Overall, DADDIO is an interesting, somewhat sexy, conversation that becomes a pas de deux between two gifted actors playing people who are very different from each other but still find a human bond nonetheless, in the course of a long taxi ride home.

DADDIO opens Friday, June 28, in theaters.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars