Gideon's Daughter (2005)

A mature man rethinks his life when his daughter begin to ignore him.

Director:

Stephen Poliakoff

Writer:

Stephen Poliakoff

Stars:

Bill Nighy, Miranda Richardson, Emily Blunt

Won 2 Golden Globes. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bill Nighy	...	Gideon
Miranda Richardson	...	Stella
Emily Blunt	...	Natasha
Robert Lindsay	...	Sneath
Ronni Ancona	...	Barbara
Tom Hardy	...	Andrew
Tom Goodman-Hill	...	Dent
Joanna Page	...	Diane
David Westhead	...	Bill
Samantha Whittaker	...	Becca
Kerry Shale	...	Badalamenti
Daniel Mendoza	...	Badalamenti Spokesman
Cate Fowler	...	Council Leader
Michael Fitzpatrick	...	American Producer
Graham Cull	...	Hospital Stranger

Storyline

Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson star in a story of grief and celebrity, set in the intense spring and summer of New Labour's election victory and Diana's death. Nighy is a PR guru who has to stop and re-evaluate his world when his daughter threatens to leave his life, perhaps as revenge for his serial infidelities. Richardson plays a mother trying to bury her grief in an unconventional way after the loss of her young son.

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Plot Keywords:

daughter | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

TV-14

Did You Know?

Trivia

David Westhead was injured in an accident while filming.

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Goofs

During the cycle path protest, Stella puts her camera in its case, but in the next shot it is back out again.

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Connections

Follows Friends & Crocodiles (2005)

User Reviews

Beautiful but empty

There's always a lot to enjoy in any Stephen Polliakoff film: striking use of images and music, an interest in big questions, and the director's lack of fear of letting things run at a slow pace where this makes the story, and atmosphere, more absorbing. But there's also always a journey into a stylised world, and a tendency to set up a false dichotomy between an overly-schematised, and fake, business world, and an overly romanticised (and arguably no less fake) real world. Even when my sympathies lie with Polliakoff, I'm always frustrated by his failure to give our own side a sufficiently hard time. 'Gideon's Daughter' is not his most interesting film, largely because its central characters (a jaded spin doctor and his almost supernaturally beautiful, talented and serene daughter) are fundamentally quite dull. A moment towards the end of the film illustrates the problem succinctly: we see the main characters disappearing from a beautiful Edinburgh street, a street that it the real world in permanently busy with traffic and people but which here is shown devoid of cars and pedestrians alike: and while a director should be forgiven occasional moments of dramatic licence, when the entire drama is framed through such a distorted lens, though big questions may be asked, they're not really answered. This is a wonderfully crafted little film; but also a film that has very little relevance to the messiness of real lives.

Details

Official Sites:

BBC [UK]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 March 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gideon's Daughter

Filming Locations:

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC America, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), FremantleMedia

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1