Don’t Make Me Go starring John Cho and Mia Isaac has all of the quintessential elements of a daddy-daughter road trip movie: dingy motels, a shared beloved song, and secrets. What makes this film so compelling is that despite its focus on closeness and bonding, the relationship between father, Max (Cho), and daughter, Wally (Isaac) is fundamentally rooted in secrecy. Max is keeping some life-changing information to himself and wants to set Wally on a path of healing before she can even learn how drastically her life is about to change. Max has recently discovered a tumor at the base of his brain, and the single dad anticipates his daughter will soon be left without a parent. Unbeknownst to her, he takes Wally across the country to reunite her with her estranged mother so she has a guardian lined up after he passes away.

This setup paves the way for these characters to uncover the answers to many questions together: why is Wally’s mom no longer a part of their lives? Why would Max hide such pertinent news from his daughter when he has such limited time? The truth is, no one knows how even the strongest people in their lives will react to tragedy until it happens. This classic road trip framework is turned on its head in Don’t Make Me Go to encourage audiences to reevaluate just how well they think they know the people closest to them.

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Image via Amazon Prime Video

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A relationship between a single father and a teenage daughter is bound to be riddled with little white lies, especially as Wally is only beginning to blossom into an age that requires her to make mature decisions. At fifteen, Wally is just starting to experience the throws of young love and driving – both of which are not coming to her too easily. Max is so caught up in his own headaches (literally and figuratively) that it seems he only pokes his head up from his own life to catch Wally in the act of doing something wrong. The same seems to be true for Wally, who is pretty critical of her dad’s strictness. That’s not to say Max isn’t attentive, he is clearly loving and devoted to his only daughter, but within the snapshot of this narrative he’s pretty caught up with a frustrating job and a wishy-washy booty call situation with a woman named Annie (Kaya Scodelario). When he gets his chronic, crippling headaches checked out, he discovers that a bone tumor has put a 1-year timer on his life unless he rushes into a surgery that has a 20% chance of success. Not wanting to gamble with what limited time he has left with his daughter, he loads them into a car and brings them down south to a college reunion. He wants Wally to meet one very important person on the guest list, her mother, who left them both for another man when Wally was just a baby.

This story uses duality to really accentuate the similarities between Wally and Max. Even though they possess entirely different values and belief systems, they do have one incredibly important thing in common: they’re each about to lose the most important person in their lives. The congruent horrors and beauties of limited time are explored throughout the film, an example being when Wally is caught sneaking out and must drive the pair of them home due to Max’s headaches. The confidence of the driver’s seat allows Wally to open up about the amazing sights she saw on her night out, and how she wants to share those sights with Max one day. She expresses that she wishes he would tell her more. Slowly, as the film progresses, Wally does learn more and more about her father: things she didn’t know because he’d kept them from her, as well as things she’d never cared enough to ask about. Wally is blissfully unaware that her father is terminally ill, so her curiosity isn’t rooted in pity or desperation. Their time together has strengthened a genuine connection, and it’s beautiful to observe that mutual love and respect develop despite their butting heads.

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Image via Amazon Prime Video

Whether it’s at the casino or discussing her post-graduation travel plans, Wally is constantly resisting when Max insists that the odds are stacked against her. She doesn’t share the same pessimistic outlook as her father who regards his prognosis, and his life as a whole, with a very grim attitude. It is only because Max is keeping this incredible secret from Wally that he can really internalize the lessons she teaches him by being so confident that success is always waiting for her. He knows her unrelenting positivity can’t be motivated by trying to convince him to have the life-saving albeit risky surgery. In a way, this secret allows him to simply enjoy the unique and fearless daughter that he raised.

Wally, as a child of divorce from a young age, has only experienced her family from the perspective of her father. Max doesn't have the fondest memories of his ex-wife and Wally is well aware that she left their family to be with someone else. But after a confrontational college reunion party, Max lays it all on the table and finally admits that he brought his daughter across many state lines to meet her mom. He also confesses to the huge part he played in Wally’s mom having walked out. This revelation drives an enormous wedge between the pair and she refuses to speak to him. She forgives him on the pretense that he doesn’t hide anything else from her, a promise he’s breaking as he’s making it, and she acknowledges that Max is the parent that stuck around for her and took care of her. When Max is finally face-to-face with his ex-wife, however, it is insinuated that her lack of contact with Wally has more to do with their custody agreement than Max let on. She says that her parental rights were stripped away by the courts and that it wasn’t easy for her. Max is immediately defensive, saying that he doesn’t want to re-hash any of that now, as he prepares to make the big introduction. It is clear that Wally’s mother wanted to be a part of their lives when Wally was a baby, but now she has started a different chapter, and Max can’t simply waltz in and decide that now is an acceptable time to bridge that gap. Wally never does get to go inside and meet her mother, and she will never know what her mother said about the pain she experienced during their split. This demonstrates how a child never truly knows the lives their parents led before they were old enough to remember. After feeling hurt and rejected by her mother for many years, Wally and Max have formed somewhat of an alliance. Because Wally’s only recount of her early childhood was iterated to her by her father, a biased point of view might have altered the relationships within their family. Now that Max is worried Wally will be left without a parent, this dishonesty, intentional or not, has ramifications.

Wally and Max essentially start this film as strangers. On their trip, Wally learns that her father can impart his wisdom in unexpected ways. Even if he strives to force Wally down the safest path, he has his own exciting past that slowly reveals itself. Max begins to see and accept Wally for the free spirit that she is, an image of his former self. Towards the end of the film, Wally finally gets an authentic glimpse into the version of her dad she thought was long gone, and that joyful experience with him is her last. The secrets kept in this film, especially those surrounding death, allow the message to center on a relationship being built, not a relationship ending.