Daddy's Little Girls

Idris Elba's Monty James is a hardworking, well-liked soul across town, known for his compassion to others and extreme dedication to his three daughters, who he is trying to provide with a better life since their mother (Tasha Smith) walked out. Yet it should come as no surprise that when she jumps back into the quiet family's life, everything takes a turn for the worse. She is now dating a deadbeat gangbanger and demands the custody of her children so they don't have to live with Monty, who is housing a dirty secret of his own.

Meanwhile, Monty becomes well-acquainted with Julia Rossmore (Gabrielle Union), a high-maintenance, somewhat demanding lawyer, who is taxied around by him as one of his two Joe-jobs. In order to keep his kids, he must arm himself with the best lawyer possible, and manages to get buddy-buddy with Maya so that he can have her defend him. All while simultaneously maintaining an honest relationship with the woman, and keeping a close eye on his girls, who are sent to live with their mother and her boyfriend after an incident at home.

Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls is by far the most accomplished flick I've seen by him, combining sentimentality and parental-commitment for a truly winning blend of a human story. In the three other Perry picture I've seen, he tends to often focus too much on petty conflicts, soap-opera characters, and thinly constructed drama that leaves nothing to be desired. He focuses on stereotypes and archetypes rather than recognizable humans. Here, however, he accomplishes almost everything he has neglected in his past films to make a watchable and thoroughly enjoyable drama.

Elba, who gets better and better with each performance, holds much of the weight of the film on his back and deserves much of the credit for its overall success. The film refrains from making him out to be a Godsend that should be treated with royalty, and also doesn't amplify the "tragic hero" ideas it conveys in the latter act. What we get is a character smart and competent enough to believe, but one that's also noticeably flawed and contemptible.

There's also a surprising freshness to the way Elba and Union carry out their relationship together in the film. It doesn't erect itself off of tired clichés and romantically uninteresting drivel, but rather illustrates a likable relationship between two people - hugely far off on the socioeconomic line - that do much more than meet-cute. Not to mention, if you were to take the romantic story out of the film, there would still be a wealth of events and situational drama to focus on. How many romantic comedies can you say that about? Daddy's Little Girls isn't urban cinema's finest, with other dramas like Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It and John Singleton's Baby Boy passing this one right by in terms of quality and story. Yet Perry pulls no punches and doesn't have any idiotic distractions in terms of characters, melodrama, or subplots. He's focused and gridlocked on Monty and his relationship with Julia and his three daughters, which is how the film should be. This is a simple story with emotions that are memorable and content that's surprisingly favorable and well-handled.

Starring: Idris Elba and Gabrielle Union. Directed by: Tyler Perry.

I saw this film recently at the Black Film Maker International Film Festival here in London.

Not at all like Perry's previous films which have both been premiered at the festival in the last few years. Instead of broad Christian Cross-Dressing Gun Totting Comedy, what we have here is a gentle romantic drama with a smattering of jokes here and there.

At got to say it wasn't to bad though I have to admit I preferred the Meadea films. The performances were OK especially the leading actors Union & Elba. The story is a bit hackneyed but I guess that's the cynic in me. You kind of knew exactly how the film was going to end from the open credits. The audience I saw it with loved it.

That got me thinking why can't you see Perry's work in the UK other than at the BFM Film Festival. Why not release the films on DVD, any visit to Dalston/Brixton/Harlesden in London will tell you that's there's a great illicit trade in Perry's films.

Anyway, if you like a undemanding and somewhat unoriginal romantic drama this is just the thing for you.

Black Narcissus

Monty is an honest black man working as a mechanic, financially supporting his three daughters who live with his ex-wife's mother. When his mother-in-law dies, Monty is left looking after his daughters and takes on extra work as a driver for young, pretty and very successful lawyer Julia. His first day on the job brings disaster though as one of his daughters starts a fire, forcing him to take Julia to the hospital, getting him fired and social services handing his kids to their estranged mother (who lives with the local drug dealer). Monty is forced to go for custody to keep his girls but cannot get a lawyer and only a moment of kindness from Julia sees her take his case for free. While she works with him she begins to fall for his charms despite the gulf in their social status.

I want to be clear that, although I came to this film off the back of The Wire, I did not expect it to be of the same quality (or even the same genre) and I did not come to it with my mind made up or some sort of chip on my shoulder that Elba should only do projects that Wire fans somehow approve of in line with his brilliant turn as Stringer Bell. No, I came to the film because I like him as a screen presence and was happy to see this film for what it was – a romantic drama. In the broad sweep the film is OK in very base terms but the biggest problem with it is evident from the very start. Within a few minutes of the start we have a saintly old woman coughing and come comments made about her health and I immediately said "she's not making it long into this" – fade to her funeral seconds later! This is one example but there are lots of examples of really poor development and convenient narrative jumps. This may not sound like a problem but consider the main thrust of the film is the relationship between Julia and Monty convincing and engaging.

Sadly it never does and it felt like the writers had developed this in about three stages. 1: snotty impatient dislike of Monty; 2: he's not all bad but it's not for me; 3: Monty is the love of my life. The thing is that there is literally nothing between these stages and it feels like a switch has been flicked to move from one to another with the impact on the film being that it simply doesn't feel real. This left me not caring too much about the relationship throughout. The case of the title is similarly unengaging as it doesn't ring true either – it is written to elicit emotions from the viewer but by being so lame it just didn't suck me in or produce any dramatic tension at all. It isn't all bad though because it does have a very basic charm to it and, as a daytime TV movie, it would work really well for the target audience – it is just a shame that that is the best you can say about it because of how poorly written all of it is – the final five minutes being an example of everything being tied up whether it makes total sense or not. I understand that there is an element of Capraesque community fairytale here and I have no problem with that but didn't think it excused it from being "good" in areas of writing, characters and development.

The reason for me coming to the film is one of its few strengths. Elba doesn't get anywhere near the complexity or intensity of Stringer Bell of course (not that the Emmy's would agree with my summary of his acting in that) but he still has a good presence and makes for a lovable lead character. His charm and looks does help the film get away with a lot. The harder acting role is Julia because you have to make this character change convincingly and also be horrid early on without pushing the audience away. The bad news is that this role went to Union, who doesn't have the greatest range. She cannot make it work and her performance is really simple and totally unconvincing as being a real person. Her looks do not help her that much here and the lack of reality in her character breaks the chemistry between her and Elba. The kids are cute and slightly annoying in their delivery, being too obvious in doing what they are doing. Nobody else has much to do – Gossett Jr rolls through in an attempt to add some weight to the film by his name, Smith, Ross, Williams, Vaughn and others all do the basics but not much more.

Daddy's Little Girls is a very basic film that will work best in a few years when you stumble upon on in the middle of TVM stuff in the middle of a weekday but even then it is pretty thin stuff. It relies heavily on Elba and Union's performances, both of whom try their best but don't have decent characters and simply try to charm their way through. The writing is poor as it lacks any flow or development worth talking about and it feels like it was delivered in blocks. Were it funnier, more dramatic or more engaging, this wouldn't matter but the film is not good enough to cover the development problem and it gets dull and silly very quickly with only Afro-Caribbean TVM weepy fans being left loving it.

Unlike one of the other comments I read about Tyler Perry's latest film, I thought this was well done. The violence in this movie is what real life is like. And though, it is not suitable for young children or "our boys and girls", there is a reason it is rated PG-13. This isn't a feel-good family and children's movie. Kids 13 and older have most likely seen equal to or more severe fighting walking through the halls of their schools (as have I). And lets be real here - your typical 14 year old freshman in high school kid is not gonna spend $6.75 on a movie called "Daddy's Little Girls", am I right? I couldn't agree more that violence is not the answer - there's no doubt about that. But Tyler Perry's movie's are known for real life day-to-day struggles and how to overcome hard times. And if I found out that a drug dealer was beating my 5 year old daughter and leaving dark bruises on her tiny back, I would feel like doing the exact same thing. I'm so tired of cheesy unrealistic movies with dull humor. Thank you Tyler Perry for these films. You are a genius!

No one could ever accuse Tyler Perry of being the soul of subtlety - either as a filmmaker or as a storyteller. His set-ups are often painfully contrived, with characters who are two-dimensional and stereotypical, and messages that are pat and overly simplistic, to put it mildly. Yet, in this era when too many black characters are either rappers, street thugs, prostitutes or drug dealers, Perry speaks to audiences yearning to see a more positive vision of the African-American experience portrayed on screen. That's certainly an admirable goal, but the problem is that Perry himself is not above indulging in many of those very same stereotypes if, in so doing, it helps him to get his message across.

In "Daddy's Little Girls," the first ethnic stereotype Perry admirably endeavors to shatter is that of the absent or indifferent urban black father. His protagonist, Monty, is a divorced dad of three who works as an auto mechanic in a garage run by none other than Louis Gossett Jr. Monty's ex has pretty much flown the coop, leaving the kids to be raised by her mother who is currently dying of lung cancer. After the woman's death, Jennifer decides she now wants to raise the children, even though she's living with a gangsta' boyfriend who's so low he even sells drugs to the kids in the neighborhood schoolyard. This sets up a fierce custody battle between Monty and Jennifer with the three girls caught in the middle.

As stated previously, it is commendable that Perry wishes to make Monty a model for young male viewers to emulate, but in order to establish Monty's bona fides as a caring father, the filmmaker for some reason has found it necessary to ratchet up the mother's vileness past the point of believability. In fact, Jennifer makes Cinderella's evil stepmother look like June Cleaver and Carol Brady in comparison. Indeed, she is so over-the-top in her villainy that one wonders how such a seemingly level-headed and sweet-tempered soul as Marty could ever have been fooled into marrying her.

Perry doesn't do much better with the main female character, a snooty, high-priced African-American lawyer named Julia, who looks down her nose on poor working-class stiffs like Monty who takes a position as her much-abused chauffeur in order to make a little money on the side. Monty soon discovers that all the over-stressed Julia needs is a good man to bring meaning to her sterile, empty life. Thus, with the character of Julia, Perry manages to insult blacks, career women and specifically black career women in one fell swoop.

The movie makes some interesting points about the role class consciousness plays in the black community, with wealthy blacks sometimes more dismissive of their less well-off counterparts than are wealthy whites. Unfortunately, this theme is played out in the context of a fairly formulaic romance between Monty and Julia, with the "little girls" of the title reduced to not much more than walk-on roles in the story. Idris Elba is appealing and solid as the sincere, hardworking Monty, while Gabrielle Union does what she can with the poorly written part of Julia.

The narrative also suffers from what first-year screen writing students (or "Crash" deriders) like to refer to as "coincidence overload," with characters bumping into one another at all-too-convenient moments or just happening to learn crucial bits of information from news stories on TV.

"Daddy's Little Girls" starts off with the best of intentions, and there are certainly some poignant, touching moments to be found in the film, but the movie is so fixated on pandering to the emotions of its audience, especially in the melodramatic final reel, that most of the goodwill one brings to the project has pretty much evaporated by the time the closing credits come rolling by.