A ‘bottle movie’ is defined as a film that plays out entirely in one location. Among the best in this subgenre are 12 Angry Men, Carnage, and The Breakfast Club. A ‘two-hander’ is the term used for a movie with just two main characters. Notable examples are the Before Trilogy, The Lighthouse, and My Dinner with Andre (also a bottle movie). All of these titles share a commonality of razor-sharp scripts and formidable performances. Crafting a two-hander bottle movie constitutes a significant risk, a challenge that director Christy Hall was ready to tackle for her debut feature film, Daddio. 

Dakota Johnson stars as a nameless woman, donning bleach-blonde hair and platform Doc Martens, who jumps into the back of a yellow cab at JFK airport. Playing the hardened taxi driver is Sean Penn. What starts as an ordinary journey from Queens to Manhattan swiftly turns into an all-revealing therapy session that will forever alter their individual perspectives. Since Daddio solely takes place within the four confined walls of a cab, monotony is almost guaranteed. The saving grace is Johnson’s trademark charm and how well it bounces off Penn’s gruff demeanour. Despite rarely looking eye-to-eye, their dialogue plays like a never-ending rally in a tennis match. 

During the trip across boroughs, it takes Penn’s character virtually no time to unpack Johnson’s daddy issues, as if her outward appearance wasn’t a dead giveaway. The words on the page portray Johnson’s internal strife as something far more superficial than it is in reality. The core issue is her struggles in the present because she didn’t grow up with a father figure, but the script exposes that by revealing she’s having an affair with an older man and seeks fatherly advice from a cab driver twice her age. It’s a trivial, rudimentary way to trick the audience into thinking there is something profound at play when really it’s a completely on-the-nose representation.

Apart from delving into Johnson’s character’s personal relationships, the two main leads attempt to have a nuanced conversation about gender roles and today’s isolated society. There’s no doubt that the chemistry between Johnson and Penn made for a compelling back-and-forth, but the topics at hand felt hollow and muddled. The boomer behind the wheel obviously has a more archaic and bitter outlook than the strong-willed millennial in the back, but she rarely rejects him or his mansplaining. Penn’s character will ramble about his salacious past, he’ll ask her if she’s a pig in the bedroom, and he’ll express his desire to smell used panties, and she does nothing but crack a smile. Any quick-witted, leather-jacket-wearing, confident woman like Johnson would have stopped, dropped, and rolled out of that car immediately. 

After what seemed like the longest car ride in history from the airport to Midtown, the film and its two leads come to a satisfyingly emotional conclusion. There is still a lot of heart at the centre of Daddio, despite it hiding under some useless fluff. Much should be said for Hall’s ability to adapt this story in such a limited expression such as a two-hander bottle movie. It’s a bold decision to choose a format with little to no hiding room as your first endeavour in filmmaking, and Hall showed no fear. She managed to effortlessly illicit strong yet vulnerable performances from two high-calibre actors. Penn and Johnson were put under the spotlight in a way few actors are, and they both proved there is no limit to their range. Overall, Daddio is an impressive achievement in acting and directing, and a worthy new addition to the ‘bottle movie’ masterlist. 

Dir: Christy Hall
Prod: Ro Donnelly, Dakota Johnson, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sean Penn
Release Date: TBD

Sony Pictures Classics is currently in negotiation to acquire the rights to distribute Daddio