Da Reviews

DA is the heart-tugging, autobiographical story of a father-son reunion that takes place beyond the grave. After his 83-year-old father dies, Charlie (Martin Sheen)--a middle-aged, Irish-American playwright with a play about to open on Broadway--returns to the Irish coastal village of his youth to attend his father's funeral. As Charlie sits alone in his family's humble home and sorts through Da's belongings, he is visited by his father (Barnard Hughes)--more corporeal than ghostly, the invention of the grieving son's conscience. Charlie gives himself over to his imagination, exploring his love-hate relationship with his father, reminiscing with the man as he crosses a mental frontier and ventures into the past. Benefiting from wonderful performances by everyone involved, including Hughes's re-creation of his Tony Award-winning stage role, DA is an extremely moving film. This first-time directorial effort by actor Matt Clark invites us to reexamine our own parent-child relationships. For all its poignancy, however, DA is still a very funny movie. Hughes is charming--milking the humor, pathos, and humanity of his character--and only occasionally becomes too lovable. Sheen, who was one of the film's executive producers and who labored for some years to bring the play to the screen, gives an insightful, sincere performance, believably balancing a sardonic sense of irony with less rational feelings.