In the opening scene of Daddy’s Home , we meet Brad Whitaker (Will Ferrel) overjoyed at his step-daughter’s new drawing of him. This is despite the fact that his portrayal isn’t particularly flattering. He has been depicted standing at a distance from the daughter, her brother and her mother Sara (Linda Cardellini). The family portrait shows that Brad’s still very much an outsider; in fact, he has been given a blob of turd instead of hair. But he sees it as progress -- all the earlier drawings would have him dead.
Brad is a man of low self-esteem. His insecurity about being a good dad also stems from the belief that he will probably never have his own children, after a bizarre accident in a dental clinic. Imagine the character now pitted against the macho-dude biological father Dusty Mayron, played by Mark Wahlberg.
Daddy’s Home has the crackling premise for the perfect goofball comedy. You know its routine — a string of gags with good comedy actors at the helm. So it’s on the novelty of the characters and situations that the film depends.
Ferrel has played a lot of similar characters, where he is at the receiving end of the jokes. But here it’s his equation with Wahlberg’s character that supplies the film the fuel to do something new.
It’s most fun when the fight between the two is invisible – only we know it, not even Brad and Dusty are fully aware. While Dusty passive aggressively snakes his way back into the hearts of his family, an evidently intimidated Brad makes one disaster after the other. But as the theme runs out of its novelty, the film starts to feel recycled. The gags aren’t funny enough – particularly one where Brad’s inability to ride a bike is exposed through an in-your-face slapstick set piece.
Ferrel was born to play the character and he does it well, especially how he pulls off the scene towards the end where his bloated ego finally explodes in full public view at a basketball match. Wahlberg does what is required, playing a cardboard like a cardboard.
But the other characters are such caricatures that they are almost laughable. The introduction of a coloured character runs out of its self-deprecatory humour soon. The wife’s actions are inconsistent. But the worst are the super annoying kids who are shown to be so selfish that they seem to change sides depending on the gifts they are given.
Surprisingly, I rather didn’t mind the concluding part after the two dads call it a truce and become, as Sara calls, “co-dads”. I also liked the ending where Wahlberg’s character feels emasculated when he meets his new wife’s hunky ex-husband, a special appearance by a WWE superstar.
Daddy's Home
Director: Sean Anders
Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, and Linda Cardellini.
