Donato and Daughter (1993)

Wonderful character development!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Donato and Daughter (1993) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Sgt. Mike Donato (Charles Bronson) and Lt. Dena Donato (Dana Delany), father and daughter, must put their differences to the side and deal with a serial killer stalking L.A. and mutilating and raping nuns.This film was released shortly before the fifth DEATH WISH movie and a series of A FAMILY OF COPS so it's easy to see why it escaped so many Bronson fans. The film was made-for-TV but released straight to video in most locations but since it has yet to receive a DVD or Blu-ray release very few have actually seen it. The film itself certainly isn't a masterpiece or even a good movie but it's at least entertaining if you're a fan of the actor.The film mixes elements of 10 TO MIDNIGHT as well as BAD LIETINENT but obviously the end results aren't anywhere near those two films. I think what works best is the relationship between Bronson and Delany. There's no question that the screenplay is rather routine and doesn't try to do anything too difficult but the actors manage to turn in fine performances and they work off one another extremely well. Xander Berkeley is also effective as the serial killer and there's no question that the film picks up once the back-and-forth between him and the Donato's come into play.The biggest problem with the film is the fact that it simply doesn't try to do anything more than be a cable movie. The film is a bit more violent and contains a darker subject matter than you'd expect to see but there's really no style to be found and the story itself is full of clichés including the big secret that Bronson is hiding, which has caused his character to be distant from his daughter. DONATO AND DAUGHTER will appeal to Bronson fans but it certainly can't compare to his best work.

****SPOILERS**** In one of his last movies the 72 year old and puffy faced Charles Bronson plays tough L.A detective Sgt.Mike Donato who's assigned with his daughter, also a member of the LAPD, Dena- Dana Dena what's the difference- played by Dana Deleny to track down a serial killer, dubbed the "Fingers Man",who's been murdering catholic nuns and cutting off their ring fingers as a souvenir.There's also a side plot here about Sgt. Donato's son Tommy, also a member of the LAPD, who was killed under very bizarre circumstances that he's been keeping from Dena that has her feel that he may have been responsible for his death! As it soon turns out, no big surprise here, that the "Fingers Killer" has been involved in a string of murders of women, mostly catholic nuns, in three different states for over some 15 years that he skillfully covered up from the local police. It's here in L.A that he gets a bit careless in his obsession with Let.Dena Donato whom he, in how pretty she is besides being catholic, developed the hots for.****SPOILERS*** Even though age slowed him down and he shows early signs of Alzheimer's Disease, which in fact killed him ten years later, Bronson dose a fairly good job as the tough and no holds bar L.A detective Mike Donato. It's just in the close ups and in his speech pattern, that at times seems slurred, that Bronson shows his age. With his daughter ending up getting kidnapped by the killer Sgt. Donato has no choice but to give into her kidnappers demand. Only to have the helicopter that's supposed to take him out of the country with Dena as his hostage going up instead of down, that startled him, to take or fly him out of harms way. Thus finally giving the frustrated Sgt. Donato a window of opportunity to blast him!

There's something alluring about Dana Delaney in this and some of her other work. She's really beautiful. But not in a striking way like Elizabeth Taylor, or ethereally like Gene Tierney. Something about her slight chin, dark eyes, dimples, and the way her lower lip folds under its upper counterpart suggests that, though she might be provoked into anger, she would never be spiteful or vicious. This hard-to-define quality is an odd blend of sensuality and nurturance. Any normal man, if distraught, would be tempted to lay his head on her bosom and let himself be comforted and, if things worked out, have her babies.Bronson, at 72, is still Bronson, doing his best to act, apparently having a little trouble slinging bodies downstairs and kicking in doors, but that's okay with me. He should get an award for being able to lift his foot as high as the doorknob.Xander Berkeley as the disdainful nun rapist and murderer is fine. He has the appearance and demeanor of a wealthy and self-satisfied upper-middle-class snob.That may be the chief weakness of the story. It's a routine serial killer movie -- told almost exclusively from the point of view of the father/daughter team of Bronson and Delaney. It was filmed in Los Angeles and, like the city itself, it looks like the ordinary, soulless, uninspired, smog-ridden spiritual void that it is.There is virtually no local color, even granted that it's hard to find in the first place. It was reassuring, though, to see the Bradley Building put to use as a location once again. The first time I remember seeing it was in "Double Indemnity" (1943).But none of the character seem to be FROM anyplace. Bronson is a Lithuanian from some small coal-mining town in Pennsylvania, but you wouldn't know it. Neither would you guess that Xander Berkeley was born in Brooklyn or that Dana Delaney, born in New York City, attended Philips Andover or had any history at all. The characters are "blanks", like the body that King Donovan finds on his pool table in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." It makes one long for The Dead End Kids, almost.

Bronson copped it by the critics during the 80s for his work with cannon, but his fans stuck with him and while I wouldn't call them masterpieces they were still entertaining. Then into the nineties he was mainly involved in TV productions, but again these were a lot better than I expected. And I mean a lot. For a standard made-for-TV presentation; "Relative Danger" was an engrossingly glum crime drama, even with the routine scenarios and blaring stereotypes. This can be attributed to Charles Bronson's steadfast performance, along with his convincing chemistry alongside a hearty Dana Delany (playing his on- screen daughter). In Los Angeles nuns are being brutally raped and murdered. This sees the pairing up of father and daughter, Mike and Dina Donato. Meaning they must work pass their past differences and frosty relationship, as they plan to tempt the killer out of hiding and into an elaborate trap they've set. However this killer goes about trying to twist it back onto the detectives, while getting somewhat personal.Adapted off the novel of Jack Early, the script is heavy on family drama (giving it much needed weight) while at the same time balancing the disquieting serial killer framework with the investigative groundwork. What makes it work is because everything is kept grounded and the toying cat-and-mouse element between the Donatos and the serial killer (a perfectly neurotic Xander Berkeley) thrillingly punches away. You do get to see Bronson hand out some psychical punishment… vintage Bronson too. Rod Holcomb is competent in his direction letting the action and drama smoothly unfold with some sweeping camera-work capping it off. There's quite solid cast in support; Jenette Goldstein, Marc Alaimo, Tom Verica, Robert Gossett, Michael Cavanaugh and Bonnie Bartlett."Where was her god when this happened?!"