Daughter of God splits its attention between two characters. Isabel (Ana de Armas) is a young Dominican woman with a soldier boyfriend in the Middle East. While heading home one night she sees what she believes are angels. Later on, she discovers that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, police detective Galban (Keanu Reeves) is investigating the apparent murder of his corrupt partner. He dives into this investigation, strong-arming his way into a close knit community, while meeting resistance from higher ups who want his partner's misdeeds to stay buried.
These two parts have something to do with each other, of course, but the intersections come pretty late into the narrative. It almost feels like you're watching two completely different movies. One is told mostly in Spanish, about this young woman who might be encountering the divine, or simply separating herself from reality. The other film is a dour cop drama that very slowly unravels a mystery. Neither one of these movies is particularly good on its own. Stuck together, they both feel weaker. When the movie finally gets to the answers, they're horribly trite and underwhelming.
Of the two parts, the police procedural is weaker. There's just so little progression in the narrative in these scenes. It is as though these sequences were never really meant to be a focus for the movie. Galban doesn't really have an arc. He already knows right from the start that his partner wasn't the nicest guy. There is no real conflict in him learning more about the terrible things that he did. There is some intrigue in his relationship with his partner's widow, and a trace of something dramatic in his relationship with his son, but none of it really turns into anything particular meaningful.
Isabel's story is a little more interesting, if only because of its setting. Though still littered with clichés, the film's portrayal of her community piques the interest a little bit, at least. And the suggestion of something mystical taking place occasionally gives this story a measure of intrigue. But in the end, there isn't really anything here, either. It might just be the fact that this narrative has to split time with the other, but it just never really gets deep enough into anything to create anything of substance.
The filmmaking is competent, though. Long, fluid takes give the movie a semblance of craftsmanship. The production design feels a tad generic, but it doesn't really get in the way or anything. Ana de Armas is okay as Isabel, though she's missing the fire that she's shown in other roles. Keanu Reeves is miscast as Galban, the actor too outwardly placid to convey the inner turmoil that this character is going through. Though to be completely fair to the actor, one might have to acknowledge that the script isn't really giving all that much to work with.
Daughter of God ends up feeling like two bad movies in one. The film's narrative structure would be challenging even if both sides were actually good. It just becomes frustrating to have these two sides dance around each other while rarely meeting up. But neither side of this story emerges as being worth telling, when all is said and done. The film largely trades in clichés, and the narrative rarely gets to anything that would make this whole enterprise to worthwhile.
My Rating:
