‘Daddio’ Is Intimate Without Warrant

Daddio is a dreary two-hander with the look, feel and sound of one hand clapping. Conceived and word processed by first-time writer-director Christy Hall, it takes place in the form of a dialogue between two people in a taxi cab trapped in a traffic jam between JFK and midtown Manhattan. The driver is a salty working-class bore named Clark (Sean Penn). The unnamed passenger he labels “Girlie” (a wonderful Dakota Johnson) is returning from an unhappy trip to her hometown in Oklahoma. He begins...