Film Review - Daddy's Little Girls

Film Review of "Daddy's Little Girls"

Director and writer Tyler Perry creates a serious film where he picks his comedic interruptions and without his famous "Madea" character taking up the limelight the cast does a great job of filling the void. The focus is on Julia (Gabrielle Union of The Honeymooners), a no-nonsense lawyer who has been nursing a broken heart since a terrible breakup. Cast member Idris Elba (From Television's The Wire) plays a good-hearted auto-mechanic with three young daughters. When bad things occur in Monty's life, custody of the young girls are given to the wicked, drug-dealing mother, Jennifer played by Tasha Smith. In a review from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Bob Longino, he states that "Daddy's Little Girls" should impress the box office with this cast, which also includes legendary actor Lou Gossett Jr.

In "Daddy's Little Girls", Monty (Elba) is a struggling auto-mechanic living in a poor neighborhood that's trying to keep his drug-dealing ex-wife from gaining custody of their three daughters. Not able to support his daughters the court awards the girls to their mother. Monty doesn't give up the fight; he takes it to another level by enlisting the help of Julia (Union), a gorgeous, Ivy-league lawyer who he had been previously employed by. Julia and Monty are far in comparisons but an unexpected love for one another begins to blossom. Since both lives are so different there are obstacles to overcome that threaten to crush Monty's family.

In "Daddy's Little Girls" the plot is very important to the development of the film. Although Director Perry creates a classical plot structure by escorting the viewer on a journey of love, corruption, despair and change, he changes the viewer's normal view of the paternity battle by revealing a black man who is responsible and the best opportunity for the girls to have a normal life as to the drug-dealing, hustling mother who would provide just the opposite. Director Perry also mastered the musical soundtrack both diegetic and nondiegetic. The soundtrack provided emotional shifts in scenes where Perry wanted to emphasize his religious affiliation to his core audience. The music effectively supported the dialogue function of the film.

Mastering of a sitcom-friendly comfort zone of Christian family values

...