She Rides Shotgun was better than expected but ultimately unsatisfying.
Polly is approached after school by a seeming stranger, who is her biological father, and recently released inmate, Nate. Nate wants to protect her from the gang that has already killed Polly’s mother and step-father, and that is searching for them, by taking her to Mexico. Detective John Park, whom Polly called the news hotline from the hotel where they were hiding, promises to care for her if Nate doesn’t survive his confrontation from the gang leader, whom Nate and John both want.
This crime-thriller emotional center is clearly the father-daughter relationship. Nate, who has been mostly absent, has returned to protect her, and they have a couple of days to learn about each other. Nate in his role as father teaches Polly to bash knees and brains with an aluminum bat for example and also remembers to grab Polly’s candy bar while robbing a gas station to finance their escape.
This movie has a 91% positive rating from top critics. Several cite the performances of Taron Egerton as Nate and Ana Sophia Heger as Polly. For instance, the NPR critic describes Egerton as “ripped and terrifying” and Heger as “flat-out terrific.”
Heger’s performance as Polly while impressive for a kid offers little insight into her motivation. Polly can escape a detective’s squad car, evade armed federal, state, and local officers, avoid any stray bullets, fool and outrun an agitated dog, and cut down her father, who is someone she barely knows, and someone who is shown her more mayhem and murder than most will ever witness.
Edgerton’s as Nick might be more plausible — a parent could care about preventing his actions from harming his child even if he abandoned her — but still is insufficient. He must vacillate between hardened criminal and loving parent, but the emotional distances as a result of the plot demands are too much for specific scenes and the entire story.
This movie succumbs to the crime thriller cinematic allure, and repeatedly returns the focus from this relationship to the chase. It might intend to challenge these conventions, or at least humanize this genre, which is intriguing but never realized in this adaptation.
Perhaps the novel does that better.
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