For Ellen

Writer/director So Yong Kim demonstrated an acute understanding of the juvenile psyche in her previous films In Between Days (2006) and Treeless Mountain (2008). It stands her in good stead once again for this drama, which sees an immature father attempting to reconnect with the six-year-old daughter he neglected in chasing the elusive dream of rock stardom. Arriving in upstate New York to negotiate a divorce settlement with his passive-aggressive wife (Margarita Levieva), Paul Dano suddenly realises the terms will deny him access to his little girl (Shaylena Mandigo), and he hurriedly arranges a two-hour meeting in a fraught bid to establish a relationship. The trip to the mall, bowling alley and snowbound park is beautifully played by Dano and Mandigo, although his other encounters with an inept momma's boy lawyer (Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder) and new girlfriend (Jena Malone) are less well portrayed. Nevertheless, this slow burner is often gently amusing and sweetly sad.