The new film, Daddy’s Wallet, from writer and director Matthew Kyle Levine takes a dive into the sordid behaviour of a man who has decided he is dissatisfied with his life. The man, known only as Daddy, wants to spice up his life with new and younger women, but he also doesn’t want to let go of the woman he married. It seems that with the money he has, the man is able to control and manipulate those around him to suit his own selfish desires.
One of the most striking elements of Daddy’s Wallet is the viewers’ inability to get behind the protagonist. He isn’t a hero of any kind. It’s difficult to feel any emotion towards the man other than disgust. And yet the story is transfixing for this very reason.
Daniel Martin Berkey is truly unsettling in his portrayal of Daddy; it is uncomfortable and unnerving to be forced to so closely watch a man self-destruct, taking everyone within his vicinity down too. The cinematography (by Levine and Alex Scarlatos) parallels this discomfort, holding the viewer within physically claustrophobic shots, never allowing us to escape the wrought emotions of the characters.
The void around the protagonist deepens as he decides to take his secret year-long affair with Natalie (Gina Marie Holden) to the next level; moving her into his house. The same house where his wife is forced to remain because of the financial hold of her husband. Under the illusion of experimentation, the man loses himself in drugs and sex with Natalie, as well as various other women. All his wife and daughter can do is look on in horror.
Natasa Babic as The Wife and Kelley Heyer as the Daughter play excellent roles, evoking the most prominent emotional responses in the film. Holden also displays a good performance as the starry-eyed, twenty-something mistress chasing an idea rather than a reality.
Watch the trailer below.