Drama, drama, drama. That's all you'll find in The Perfect Daughter premiering Saturday, March 26 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime. Of course, we all know that drama isn't just reserved for the movies, but it also unfortunately makes its way into real life every now and again. So is The Perfect Daughter a true story, like so many movies that have aired on Lifetime before it?
That doesn't appear to be the case. There's no mention of anything like "based on a true story" or "inspired by real events" within the movie's synopsis via the website of its production company, MarVista Entertainment:
Martin Parish loves his daughter Natalie more than life itself. The two have been inseparable ever since his wife died from cancer when Natalie was a toddler. When Martin picks Natalie up from a party at Sam Cahill’s—the town’s star hockey player—she is confused and very sick. Martin doesn’t understand what has happened and who is to blame. Then Natalie becomes increasingly distant causing a panicked Martin’s imagination to run wild. When he learns that she is pregnant, he’s convinced that Sam is the father and overreacts by making false accusations to the police. The more he tries to protect Natalie and gain her confidence, the more she slips away...and into Sam’s arms. As Natalie’s life grows more complicated, Martin struggles to hold on to the one thing that matters to him the most—the love of his daughter.OK, so there's A LOT going on here. You've got themes of a family torn apart by cancer, teenage pregnancy, and sexual assault all wrapped into a cool 90 minutes. There doesn't appear to be any specific, real-life inspiration that The Perfect Daughter, which has an alternate title of The Carpenter's Daughter, draws upon in its presentation of these topics, but these are all familiar issues that our society continues to deal with today. The Perfect Daughter might not be based on a true story, but it does give you a lot of real drama for your time.
If you decide to watch The Perfect Daughter on Saturday night and find yourself wanting to dive deeper into this movie's themes, there are plenty of stories — both real and fictional — that you can turn to. However, what's at the heart of this film, a story about how life's unpredictability changes the relationship between a father and a daughter, is a little harder to find in entertainment, but it's still out there.
One recent film that shares some similarities with The Perfect Daughter is 2011's The Descendants , which follows a father trying to navigate his relationship with his two daughters after his wife ends up in a coma. If you want to focus on how a daughter's love for another man, i.e. her significant other, influences her relationship with her pop, there are many movies that explore that area, but we all know Father of the Bride , the classic 1991 Steve Martin comedy about a dad who has a bit of a hard time accepting the fact that his daughter isn't daddy's little girl anymore, is the most delightful. Or if you want to go the action thriller route with a justice-seeking dad, territory that The Perfect Daughter also seems to get into, then 2008's Taken, which follows Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills as he stops at nothing to find his kidnapped daughter in Paris, might be your scene.
If none of these tickle your fancy, there are plenty others that explore this unique bond out there, from the silly to the serious, that might be more your speed. But doesn't all of this talk about fathers just make you want to hug your dad or whoever has filled that role for you in your life?
Image: MarVista Entertainment
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