American Primitive

Tate Donovan sports a British accent for this really mediocre family drama that I found quite hard to struggle through. Following the death of his wife, he and his two daughters "Madeline" (Danielle Savre) and "Daisy" (Skye Bartusiak) relocate to a small community on Cape Cod where he falls, a bit unexpectedly, for "Theo" (Adam Pascal). They try to keep their relationship secret but of course the cat can't stay in the bag for long and there now develops an actually quite torrid story of selfishness, intolerance and stupidity. To be fair to Donovan ("Harry") he does just about enough here as the dad juggling truths, lies, love and lust - but "Madeline"! If she had been mine I would have put her in a velvet sack. I wish I could say that it was Savre's talent as an actor that drove me mad, but it wasn't. She is terrible, but shares responsibility for her shocking delivery with the writers who provide a characterisation of this truly odious individual who sneaks around spying on her father; a creature who peeks through keyholes and eavesdrops from the stairs. Imagine if her father had done that to her as she carried on with her own "private" life. The story is all so contrived and frankly unpleasant. It's implausible, and the arrival of the always wooden as a spoon James B. Sikking ("How can you have yellow alert in space dock?") as his religiously bigoted father just further commends this sentimental and flawed drama to the doldrums. Who is this for? Well that's anyone's guess - but it was certainly not for me.