Don't Make Me Go is available on Prime Video beginning Friday, July 15.
With a third act -- okay, a back half of a third act -- that utterly confounds, Don't Make Me Go, starring John Cho and Mia Isaac, is equally whimsical and heavy as a road trip dramedy. It provides indie drama insight and warmth in all the right places, with a naturalness that shines bright, despite going a little nuts during the final minutes.
Cho easily slides into a doting dad role as Isaac very much excels in her acting debut (just beating out her supporting role in Not Okay, which lands on Hulu in two weeks), together playing a strict father, Max, who learns that he has a terminal brain tumor (and a very small chance of living through an operation to remove it) and his good-hearted but challenging teen daughter, Wally. This is a breezy bonding movie peppered with a looming dark secret as Max, in lieu of telling Wally about his condition, decides to drive them both to his college reunion in New Orleans (with hopes of finding Wally's estranged mother).
Cho and Isaac have phenomenal chemistry, being able to play both soft moments and tough, combative ones with depth and believability. Max opts out of the operation so he can spend, hopefully, a solid year with Wally instead of possibly dying and leaving her life in a matter of weeks. His master plan is to fill her with life lessons while also reconnecting her with the woman who left them high and dry when Wally was an infant. It's a overly proud plan, and one that betrays Wally with inherent deception, but the film allows you to buy into it while also addressing its flaws.
Don't Make Me Go could have ticked up a little higher if the choice hadn't been made to pull the rug out from under us with the ending. Sure, it's bold in its bucking of convention but it also emotionally and thematically works against the story that precedes it. As much as we're told by the narration that we probably won't like how things wrap up, and then even discovering there are several moments signaling the endgame, this is the type of movie that didn't need a Shyamalan-esque swerve.
Returning to the strengths of the movie, director Hannah Marks displays a deft hand at tonal balance and gentle pathos. It's actually great fun to watch Cho and Isaac together and their bond -- complete with complexities and conflict -- will make you actively root for things to turn out well. In the grand scheme of cinema, this is a slight story ---a two-hander with only personal stakes between the pair -- but it still breathes with energy and light.
That being that, what will probably stick with you most afterwards are the final boggling moments which are almost akin to finding out everything you've been watching has been a dream. You're for sure meant to be invested in both characters and their futures but the film gambles way too big on the wrong one.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/pyMJ2Um
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