Leaving JFK airport in New York, a young woman gets into a taxi, looking preoccupied. Behind the wheel is Clark, a talkative fifty-something who has theories about everything and considers himself an amateur psychologist. The guy is friendly and the passenger feels an urgent need to take her mind off things, so a conversation in the form of a game begins. A “real-time” closed-door session confined to the passenger compartment of a taxi, Daddio is powered by electrifying performances from Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn.
Daring in his challenge, Daddio impresses all the more as it is Christy Hall’s very first feature film. Helped by a Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny/Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) inspired by the direction of photography, Hall takes up this self-imposed narrative and technical challenge with aplomb and mastery.
The director also wrote the screenplay. A scenario full of good lines, an essential aspect insofar as the entire exercise is based on the long exchange between the two protagonists. Moreover, the words exchanged very quickly become intimate and meaningful, with the banter quickly taking a backseat. This is one of the many points where Hall surprises favorably. At every turn, often literally and figuratively, the discussion sometimes takes on an unsuspected depth, sometimes a content that defies preconceptions.
This is true of the character of Clark, who we will perhaps have too hastily tend to place in a certain box, before having to change our minds, and it is also true of that of his interlocutor, who reserves his share of surprises too.
The dynamic between the two characters is also fascinating. Without being strictly on the defensive, the passenger is the one who answers more questions in the first part. About two-thirds of the way through, however, the ratio, not of strength but of curiosity, is reversed, and it is now Clark who opens up.
The relationships between men and women are addressed, but not only; far from it, in fact. Regrets, filiation, the choices we make for ourselves… Here, it is appropriate to insist on the finesse of the compositions of Dakota Johnson, who masters the art of expressing a lot from little (like her mother, Melanie Griffith, in her time), as well as Sean Penn, who had not solicited the luminous side of his register for a very long time.
Note that in 1991, Jim Jarmusch unveiled what remains one of his most unloved films, Night on Earth (A night on earth), or five distinct stories recounting the interactions between as many taxi drivers and their passengers. It is true that the result is uneven and, sometimes, a bit superficial (the best segment is the one with Gena Rowlands as passenger and Winona Ryder as driver). However, not only does Christy Hall dazzlingly demonstrate that the concept has real cinematographic potential, she proves that it can lend itself to an entire feature film; a balanced, complex feature film with real dramatic density. In short, this is a journey that we enjoy making, especially in the company of such gifted performers.