Sundance ‘12: For Ellen review
In one of the most unusual bits of casting at the fest, 27 year old Paul Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine”) plays Joby, the struggling frontman of a hard rock band (think Buckcherry but less famous) about to lose custody of his young daughter Ellen. With long greasy dyed-black hair, a few whiskers combed into a goatee and a perpetual hangover, Joby does not look like anybody’s idea of a good dad. When he finally shows up from a neverending tour to sign the divorce papers, his wife Claire (Margarita Levieva) will barely look at him, instead letting the lawyers handle the talking. In order to split the house, she wants full custody of their daughter, now 5 or so, who Joby hasn’t seen since she was a baby. Faced with his parental rights about to be revoked, Joby decides he now wants to be a father and decides to stick around until a settlement can be reached. He ends up befriending his lawyer Butler (an unrecognizable Jon Heder), who still lives with his mother. Partially autobiographical, the genesis of the script for writer/director So Yong Kim was her own absent father which may be the reason questions about why Joby abandoned his daughter remain unanswered.
If Dano’s casting is a bit strange (originally the part was written for a much older actor) he carries the film anyway. Joby may be off putting - neither he, the director, nor the intended audience for the film will likely relate to his music - but Dano seems to relish the awkward and embarrassing moments including a fully choreographed drunken bar dance to a Whitesnake song. Likewise his quieter moments with Heder or the young actress who plays his daughter are some of the film’s highlights. Featuring finely tuned performances, quietly observed and strangely funny moments, the film nonetheless fails to get into gear. While I was never bored it does move a little slowly and by the time Joby’s girlfriend (Jena Malone) shows up out of the blue, it’s practically over. Indebted to the films of the 70’s (including a finale cribbed from “Five Easy Pieces”), “For Ellen” is a snapshot of a character in transition but feels like one piece of a larger puzzle.
Check out my interview with writer/director So Yong Kim at The Playlist/Indiewire
