Fathers Of Girls

That dads will do anything for their daughters is one of the central tenets of Fathers Of Girls. It's a theory borne out by the cast list - because surely familial commitment can be the only reason why the ever-watchable Ray Winstone is slumming it alongside his daughter Lois in this damp squib of a film. Co-director/co-writer Karl Howman (best known as Jacko in Brushstrokes and the bloke from those annoying Flash adverts) also keeps it in the family, casting daughter Chloe in the remaining central role.

The (in)action follows dad Frank Horner (Winstone) - who has the sort of "I love you, princess" internal monologues Dirty Den would have laughed at - as he attempts to find out how his daughter (Winstone Jnr) came to die of a drug overdose. The result is dominated by talking and stalking as Frank tries to get close to his daughter's best friend (Howman Jnr) in order to find out how his little angel fell from grace. Winstone just about keeps his dignity intact, but even he can't work miracles with a script which offers him virtually nothing in the way of character development. Elsewhere, the acting quality has all the life of a piece of flatpack furniture although, in fairness, there is very little for any of the cast to work with.

Even the music by Stuart Roslyn, while fine as a standalone score, feels inappopriate. His thriller-inspired swoops and dives - speaking to tension and threat which the film fails to generate - feel entirely at odds with Howman and co-filmmaker Ethem Cetintas' decision to keep the action within a low-key domestic realm.

Limp and limping, even the short 76-minute runtime feels like a chore.