‘Don’t Make Me Go’ (2022) Review: A Heartfelt Movie About the Unpredictability of Life
Hannah Marks’ Don’t Make Me Go follows a terminally ill father and his young teenage daughter on a road trip to reunite with her mother. The director enlists John Cho as Max and Mia Isaac as Wally in a tear-jerking story about the unbreakable bond between father and daughter. “You’re not gonna like this when the story ends,” says Wally at the beginning of the movie. A heartfelt and relationship-focused movie steers the viewers into an emotionally-driven story with surprising depths and plenty of laughs to go around between the father-daughter duo. At the centre of this beautiful movie, Marks handles these elements perfectly. However, there are a few mishaps that possibly ruin the third act.
Max, who is an overprotective single parent to Wally, suffers from long and intense headaches. On a visit to the hospital, he is informed of a tumour on the base of his skull that could potentially lead to disastrous results if they were to operate on it. Instead of telling Wally about the diagnosis and that he has only one year to survive, he thinks about his daughter’s future. In an effort to find someone to take care of Wally, he proposes a cross-country road trip from California to his college reunion in Louisiana, with the hopes of reuniting with his former partner and Wally’s mother, Nicole (Jen Van Epps), who left them when she was a baby.
Cho has proven to craft great performances, just like his role as the father in Searching, he shows how comfortable he is portraying father figures on screen. Don’t Make Me Go is designed to wring tears, and the emotional beats between Isaac and Cho works due to their chemistry. Isaac portrays a grumpy, frustrated and carefree teenager, who wishes to do things that people her age would normally do. The best element about the movie is that Wally, all due to Isaac’s incredible performance, feels like a teenager. Everything she does is impulsive and Max is repeatedly concerned about her safely. Both Isaac and Cho shine in every scene that they are in, and viewers might feel a connection towards the father-daughter duo’s conversations about love, life and relationships.
One of the many great qualities about Don’t Make Me Go is teaching the value of parents and how they are people who make mistakes, just like everyone else. During their road trip, Wally begins to see her father’s flaws and the sacrifices he made to keep their family afloat. She learns about Max’s dream of becoming a musician and touring the world, but he had to give that up to take care of his daughter. Their relationship becomes stronger and they begin to see each other in a completely different light. When Wally’s crush doesn’t reciprocate her feelings, Max advises her to focus on people who treat her well. But of all of this, the road trip, the reunion, and the driving lessons, are due to Max’s anxiety over his diagnosis. It’s scary and heartbreaking to see the lengths at which some viewers might believe is a bit extreme, but it’s understandable. It’s the regret of missing future milestones and moments that are important to both of them.
What makes Don’t Make Me Go an incredible drama is how it shows the challenges of emotional confrontation and how it is difficult to fulfil a parent’s fantasy for their child. It’s a beautiful story about the bond between a father and daughter, and the twist confirms that the movie is not about Wally, it’s about Max. It’s about the unpredictability of life and how there is limited time to spend with the people they love. The ending might be unexpected but there is a lesson, within the life lessons and the karaoke sessions, and Marks’ shows some of the most earnest moments in the film when Wally and Max are on the road.
Edited by: Raayaa Imthiyaz
