Summary
Maisa Silva fronts a charming and light-hearted Brazilian comedy in Double Dad, about a teenage girl in search of her father and getting two for the price of one.
There’s a reason certain genres are popular with audiences, and indeed with filmmakers alike. There’s a lot of comfort to be found in the familiar; in knowing what to expect and being led along a predictable route to an uplifting destination. Cris D’Amato’s Double Dad, streaming on Netflix, understands the innate allure of a fun-for-all-the-family comedy in which a young 18-year-old girl escapes the hippie commune where she has spent her life in search of the father she has never met. Its secret weapon is that the girl, Vicenza, is played by Maisa Silva, a former child star growing into a remarkably personable actor.
Both D’Amato and screenwriters Renato Fagundes and Thalita Rebouças seem to understand the innate appeal of their star. When her mother leaves the commune for India, she sees an opportunity to flee herself, heading to Rio de Janeiro and meeting not one but two prospective parents, including struggling bohemian painter Paco (Eduardo Moscovis) and success story Giovani (Marcelo Médici). But with two dads, one, or none at all, Vicenza retains the limelight and the audience’s attention, earning a few chuckles with decent fish-out-of-water comedy – being a hippie certainly has its drawbacks – and generating some emotional interest in a few more serious turns.
Double Dad, then, is really a film constructed to prop up a charismatic performance, but that isn’t to say it has nothing to say about its themes of parenting in general and fatherhood specifically. That it’s relatable in that sense is also a boon, and makes the film well-suited to lazy afternoon full-family viewing. It might not win any awards or trend in any meaningful way, but it’ll really satisfy the right audience.
