Today’s quick review: Father Hood. Jack Charles (Patrick Swayze) is on his way to jail, but first he has one last score to make: a briefcase worth a quarter of a million dollars, just waiting for him to steal it. Stopping to rescue his children, Kelly (Sabrina Lloyd) and Eddie (Brian Bonsall), from an abusive foster care facility, Jack travels across the country in pursuit of his fortune and in the process gets to know his kids for the first time.
Father Hood is a crime comedy about a reckless criminal and his estranged children. Patrick Swayze stars as Jack Charles, a career criminal with selfish motives and no interest in his children, at least until circumstances force them back into his life. Father Hood aims to be a family comedy with some heart, focusing on Jack’s evolving relationship with Kelly and Eddie. However, shaky character work and a thin plot keep it from achieving its goal.
Father Hood’s main issue is that it doesn’t strike the right balance with its main character. Jack needs to split the difference between roguish and redeemable to make the story work, but the movie starts him off too selfish and irresponsible for the audience to really invest in. Patrick Swayze is a good pick for the role and puts Jack’s character in the right ballpark, but he spends most of the movie showing no interest in his children at all.
As such, Father Hood is missing one of the central pillars needed to support its story. Jack does get the chance to connect with his kids, but it comes too late to carry the viewer through the early parts of the film. Father Hood should be the charming tale of a self-centered man gradually learning to love his children; instead it’s an argument-filled road trip that only tacks on its character development near the end.
This isn’t to say that Father Hood is without its strengths, but they tend to be overshadowed by where it falls short. Jack, Kelly, and Eddie have the makings of a good family dynamic, even if Jack is a little too dismissive to make it click. The foster care portion of the plot is a fine core to build a story around, but the movie doesn’t handle it gracefully. Generally, the movie has the ingredients it needs but doesn’t combine them in the right ways.
Father Hood is a movie with a reasonable endpoint in mind, but it lacks the skill to get there. The movie has neither the main character nor the plot to support the kind of story it wants to tell. Without this backbone in place, the rest of the movie falls flat. There is still mild enjoyment to be had as Jack tries to brush off the cops and his children, but most viewers will find that they can do better without too much effort.
For a more cleanly executed movie about a father bonding with his son over the course of a cross-country roadtrip, try Over the Top. For a more dramatic story about a man who learns to put others before himself, try Rain Man. For a comedy about a crook who learns to get along with the child in his care, try Paper Moon.
4.9 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.5 for a story that falls short of its modest potential.