‘Prisoner’s Daughter’ Review: Brian Cox Continues to Play Problematic Patriarchs in Predictable Feel-Good Drama
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It’s almost impossible for Brian Cox to be in a bad movie because, well, he’s giving a Brian Cox performance every time. Simply put, Cox is the saving grace of his latest feature, “Prisoner’s Daughter,” a predictable family drama that has heart thanks to grounding performances by Cox, Ernie Hudson, and breakout child star Christopher Convery. The rest, however, leaves a lot to be desired.
However, there are still other pleasures to be found in the final product. Catherine Hardwicke (“Twilight,” “Thirteen”) is building out the perfect frothy cinematic universe where “Prisoner’s Daughter” and her recent Toni Collette vehicle “Mafia Mamma” could beautifully coexist — and make for an enjoyable wild ride.
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Hardwicke previously spoke with IndieWire’s Kate Erbland about her wide-ranging tastes when it comes to picking scripts, and “Prisoner’s Daughter” is no exception. Written by Mark Bacci and premiering at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, the family drama centers on criminal Max (Cox) who is released from prison after a 12-year sentence due to a different life sentence: He only has five months to left to live, thanks to a brutal cancer diagnosis.
Max moves in with his estranged daughter Maxine (Kate Beckinsale) and her middle school-aged son Ezra (Convery). Enter the adorably touching relationship between Max and Ezra, as the duo bond over boxing and defeating schoolyard bullies who make fun of Ezra’s epilepsy. Cox and Convery’s onscreen chemistry is the crux of the film; scenes flounder when it’s Beckinsale and Cox sharing the screen, while each sequence solely with Beckinsale stands neatly on its own.
Basically, it’s hard to go head-to-head with Cox’s acting ability in his post-“Succession” glory. And yet, Convery still commands.
In every millennial’s dream casting, Tyson Ritter of All-American Rejects (and, you know, a wide-ranging acting career beginning with “The House Bunny” and including Hardwicke’s “Miss You Already”) plays Ezra’s deadbeat father Tyler, who’s better at drumming and doing drugs than parenting. The central conflict -— which comes too late in the script — is between Tyler and Max battling it out for who should be the rightful male influence for Ezra.
Ernie Hudson as Max’s confidante, boxing gym owner, and later, Ezra’s mentor, proves why the older generation onscreen just are better actors. “Castle” and “This Is Us” actor Jon Huertas has a notable cameo, but it’s Hudson and Cox who school their counterparts with their effortless performances. And we mean effortless: Cox wears a fedora and pops on trendy sunglasses while charming his way out of handcuffs in a later mix-up.
Cox as former criminal and seedy Las Vegas networker Max is essentially, “what if Logan Roy actually went to jail for the cruise ship SEC scandal?” “Your father,” Max tells grandson Ezra, “is…a loser,” and the line carries as much gravitas as the “Succession” final season breakout quote about his children not being “serious people.”
Sure, a grandfather teaching his grandson how to box is pretty cliché. But would Logan Roy be doing the same with Shiv’s future child? Is this the trajectory that Logan Roy would be following in a different “Succession” universe: being a better and gentler grandparent than father?
“Prisoner’s Daughter” doesn’t dive as deeply into the father-daughter relationship the title teases, and nor is Maxine the main character of this story. It’s difficult to deduce whether this is because of the plot itself, or just how audiences inherently will immediately pay more attention to the charismatic Cox than Beckinsale’s decent, but not entirely memorable performance.
During one particularly emotional exchange where Maxine confronts her dad about abandoning her with an abusive alcoholic and suicidal mother, Beckinsale stumbles with the necessary conviction, whereas Cox casts paragraphs of dialect in just one glance. And while the film’s conclusion feels rushed, the sacrifices made by Max do not go unnoticed. Too bad this film most likely will be.
Rating: C
Vertical Entertainment releases “Prisoner’s Daughter” in theaters on Friday, June 30.
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