92. Janie Jones

Janie Jones (Abigail Breslin) is driving with her mom (Elisabeth Shue) to see a band.  Not just any band though.  The lead singer Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola) is supposedly her father.  She has never met him and has been raised by her mother who has a drug problem.  When they get there, her mom goes backstage to talk to Ethan.  She tells him that he has a daughter, but he doesn't believe.  At the show Janie goes up front to get a look at the man that's her father.  When she returns, her mother has disappeared.  When the police find her all alone, they inform Ethan that she either goes with him or they call the CPS until they can locate her mother.  Ethan's girlfriend Iris (Brittany Snow) convinces him to let Janie travel along with them on tour. 

Ethan is slowly loosing it (not Janie's fault).  He is constantly getting into fights with his band mates about the music.  After seeing one of them hitting on his girl, he gets drunk and picks a fight on stage.  The band breaks up and the label drops him.  Ethan and Janie start driving back, stopping for Ethan to play gigs along the way.  When he picks a fight with a couple of heckler's, Janie steps on stage to divert the attention and get him out of the pickle.  Turns out the girl has talent.  They start booking gigs together as a father/daughter act.  Without noticing, he starts to become protective of her, and punches a man who was making suggestive hand gestures about Janie, which lands him in jail.  Alone and unable to get ahold of Ethan's manager Sloan (Peter Stormare), Janie pawns their guitars in order to get the money to bail him out.  In order to get their guitars back, they drive to Chicago to ask Ethan's rich mother for a loan.  It's not until he introduces Janie to her that he finally believes it when he says he is her father. 

This movie reminded me a lot of Paper Moon.  I feel they have similar plots.  Man child gets custody of a young girl that may or may not be his daughter and they travel the country together while she continues to save him from troubling situations he gets in.  And once again I think it worked.  I think I have yet to watch a film where Abigail Breslin isn't spot on with her performance.  And on top of acting she had to sing in this.  With original music, which I was a fan of (same kind of style as Once).  This film just felt very genuine and real. 

Rating: ****

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHS0JTwdHls