X
- 2022
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 49 m
- 2022
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 49 m
Summary When single father Max (John Cho) discovers he has a terminal disease, he decides to try and cram all the years of love and support he will miss with his teenage daughter Wally (Mia Isaac) into the time he has left with her. With the promise of long-awaited driving lessons, he convinces Wally to accompany him on a road trip from Californ...
Directed By: Hannah Marks
Written By: Vera Herbert
- 2022
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 49 m
- 2022
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 49 m
Don't Make Me Go
54
6.0
Where to Watch
Summary When single father Max (John Cho) discovers he has a terminal disease, he decides to try and cram all the years of love and support he will miss with his teenage daughter Wally (Mia Isaac) into the time he has left with her. With the promise of long-awaited driving lessons, he convinces Wally to accompany him on a road trip from Californ...
Directed By: Hannah Marks
Written By: Vera Herbert
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
54
29% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
65% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
54
29% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
65% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Cho and Isaac’s stellar performances expose the gulf between familiarity and intimacy.
Don’t Make Me Go is a sweet, charming, and eventually daring dramedy with tons of heart.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 User Ratings
6.0
30% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
60% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
10% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 User Ratings
6.0
30% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
60% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
10% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
This movie was so amazing… and the ending made it even better! Definitely not what you expect…don’t read the spoilers.
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É um "Aftersun" do mainstream, sem as técnicas e delicadezas que poderia ter sido. A história é centrada na relação entre pai e filha, e ao menos a química entre os dois garante o interesse até o final.
O filme começa com uma cena dos dois numa praia de nudismo, a qual será retomada em um momento chave da história, pois depois da abertura, o enredo retrocede um pouco para vermos como os personagens foram parar lá. Obviamente foi só um detalhe "engraçadinho" do filme, que narra basicamente um drama bem pesado: o pai descobre que tem uma doença no cérebro e lhe restam duas opções, ou fazer uma cirurgia com pouquíssima chances de êxito ou então aguardar a morte por algo em torno de um ano, dado o tumor ser maligno e estar crescendo.
Assim, os dois resolvem dar uma pausa em suas vidas (ambos tem um relacionamento, o do pai bem mais sólido do que o da filha), para se aventurarem numa espécie de road movie para ir ao encontro da mãe, afinal, a filha não poderia ficar só.
Nesse caminho, há dois problemas: o filme é extremamente convencional e não se justifica o pai esconder a doença e suas intenções da filha, uma vez que a garota já é uma adolescente, uma simples conversa aqui resolveria muita coisa. Assim, o roteiro opta por escolher a via mais piegas, e com isso consegue arrancar cenas de vergonha alheia. O auge foi o constrangimento ao pararem na tal praia de nudismo, ou seja, ficaram criando situações forçadas e com dramas apelativos, como a situação por si não fosse o suficiente apara sustentar o argumento.
Note por exemplo que um filme como "Aftersun" consegue arrancar mais carga dramática indo pelo caminho oposto, ou seja, apostando na contenção e simplicidade do cotidiano, e olha que estamos falando da mesma relação com o pai, mas com uma filha ainda mais nova. Até a cena de Karaokê existe aqui, pra ver como a comparação faz sentido.
E embora o road movie tenha sido meio aborrecido, o filme cresce no seu final, quebrando as expectativas e fazendo pensar, claro que com muito didatismo, afinal, é um filme que a todo instante precisa ser palatável.
Ou seja, tem uma mensagem bonita, mas não foge do convencional, daqueles tipos de filme que até pode arrancar lágrimas, mas não sairão do lugar comum. Ainda bem que as atuações também estão muito boas, e tudo é muito bem feito, a ponto de pelo menos ser crível o suficiente e emocionante o suficiente até o final. Tá longe de ser ruim, mas poderia ser muito mais.
Report
It doesn’t always capitalize on its strengths, but Don’t Make Me Go is a journey worth taking thanks to fantastic performances from its two leads.
While its issues with pacing can be overlooked in favor of its welcome sincerity and full heart, everything that Marks’ film offers us is well-trod territory.
The performances are honest and true and that gives things a considerable boost.
Even some of its rawest emotional moments feel studiously cribbed from other movies, which is probably why not a single thing any character does throughout Don’t Make Me Go is genuinely surprising or even slightly unexpected. It’s a movie about the unpredictability and inherent dangers of a life well-lived, and you can set a watch to its screenwriting beats.
Unfortunately, the movie’s unexpected plot twist violently re-directs its treacly uplift narrative for the sake of a Hail Mary conclusion that’s almost ridiculous enough to be campy fun. It’s not though, since the twist in question feels like a last-ditch effort to convince viewers that the movie’s otherwise plain story, credited to Vera Herbert (series writer on “This Is Us”), has more depth than it does.
(Mauro Lanari)
The Yankee world is convinced that any problem can be solved on the road: false. Cognitively, one limits itself to provide simple answers to complex problems, emotionally one stops at the tearjerker, lenitive until it runs out.
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Manipulative. That's quite easy to see from the first few minutes and is revealed as soon as you go a little further.
The lead duo tries to make the journey enjoyable, which is noteworthy, although as father and daughter they lack sincere chemistry.
Clearly John Cho is the actor with the experience and it shows.
The main issue I find with Don't Make Me Go is that it's too conventional and that interferes quite a bit with what is supposed to flow in a more authentic and effortless way and yet it seems messy and artificial.
All this in order to build up to a twist at the end that completely lacks the emotional shock I want to believe the script was going for, especially since the whole movie tries to make you feel sorry for another character and its predicament, which is the catalyst for all the events that occur here, so that twist feels like a cheap trick to provoke even more emotionalism from the audience, which I've always hated in this genre, cause it feels manipulative.
Maybe it's not a dud, but it's the kind of film that's made to be forgotten as soon as it's over.
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John Cho and Mia Isaac are good. The movie had me for most of it's runtime until the last half with (if you want to call it that) twist ending. It felt manipulative and just left a sour taste with me overall
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A generic road movie with two fine performances that make you care for a while. The cliches in it are only overmatched by what could easily be the worst plot twist in the history of cinema. Shame on the writer who came up with that.
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Production Company
Amazon Studios,
Big Beach,
De Line Pictures,
Reunion Pacific Entertainment
Release Date Jul 15, 2022
Duration 1 h 49 m
Rating R
Genres
Awards
Heartland Film
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Critics Choice Awards Celebration of Cinema & Television
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA)
• 1 Nomination
