Actualités

A film ripe with delightful mischief, writer/director Leo McGuigan’s The Invention explores a deeply personal yet universally resonant story depicting a young boy’s rite of passage. Drawing inspiration from stories passed down by his father, McGuigan crafts a charming narrative set in 1960s Belfast. At the centre of it all is Frankie, a boy who, perhaps wiser than his years, reappropriates his mother’s knitting needles for a childhood caper. What begins innocently quickly reveals itself to be something far more complex as Frankie is thrust into the murky waters of moral ambiguity, family secrets, and the stark realities that adulthood will one day bring. McGuigan wanted the film to be filled with a sense of nostalgia while never shying away from the harsh truths and remaining grounded in realism. Through Frankie’s unflinching gaze, we see a world where uncorrupted youth collides with the inescapable weight of a secret.

One of the reasons that Lifetime films are so pleasurable is because they’re inherently familiar. The conflict typically centers around rich (often white) women whose lives are embroiled in adulterous and/or murderous affairs. There’s a plucky, overly supportive best friend; a cop who does nothing; and a therapist or red herring who gets killed to increase the stakes.

What makes Daddy’s Deadly Secret so pleasurable is that writer Leo McGuigan still employs many of the familiar hallmarks, but he packs the film so full that by the time the end credits roll, there’s been upwards of four or five reveals, instead of the more predictable one to two.

Directed by Sean Cisterna, Daddy’s Deadly Secret begins laying the foundation for its mystery early. The opening scene introduces married couple Richard (Steve Byers) and Caroline (Sarah Allen) as they discuss his estranged sister Darla, against whom he took out a restraining order.