Abigail Breslin Sings, Cries and Bonds With Her Estranged Father in Janie Jones Trailer

Imagine if Sofia Coppola's Somewhere had been about a girl who bonds with her estranged musician father while on tour instead of a girl who bonds with her estranged movie star dad at the Chateau Marmont. That alternative scenario is exactly what writer/director David M. Rosenthal explores in Janie Jones, which stars Abigail Breslin as the titular offspring and Alessandro Nivola as her struggling rocker father.

Unlike Elle Fanning's character in Somewhere, Breslin plays a slightly older, slightly more damaged daughter who eventually brings her rocker father joy through acoustic song and insults directed at bar patrons rather than ice-skating routines and slumber parties. (You'd probably be a little damaged too if you were raised by a former groupie who suddenly dumps you into your unfit father's tour bus.) Altogether, it looks like a grittier, more realistic father-daughter tale than the privileged father-daughter dreamworld that Coppola created.

After making its premiere last year at the Toronto International Film Festival (a week after Somewhere premiered in Venice), Janie Jones finally wanders into theaters October 28.

VERDICT: I'm in, if only to see Little Miss Sunshine tackle something more adult than Rick James choreography.

[CinemaBlend]