Starring Tobin Bell in a touching dramatic performance, A Father’s Legacy takes on issues of abandonment, free will, and faith in a beautifully crafted and performed drama sure to pull on the heart strings of the hardest of men.
The importance of a strong, positive father figure, and indeed male role model, in the lives of boys and young men cannot be quantified. It is a vital element missing in the life of Nick Wolfe (Jason Mac), a 30-something year old husband and father-to-be who has lost his job, lost his faith, and lost his way. When Nick is shot during an armed robbery, he forces his way into the home of Billy Ford (Tob Bell), a cantankerous old man who has isolated himself from the world.
Nick takes Billy hostage, yet it is Billy who takes control of the situation not through fear, but charity and wisdom. He dresses and tends to Nick’s physical wounds, as well as his spiritual and psychological injuries. Billy has been down the road of regret Nick is now walking on. He knows the ramifications of his decisions, and the loneliness and bitterness that comes from it.
Bell is terrific as Billy. Known more for his work as Jigsaw in the horror franchise Saw, Bell brings a weight of emotion and gravitas that is repressed under a grouchy veneer, dispensing life’s wisdoms with whispery authority, while struggling with the ramifications of his own decisions that has left him a man onto his own. It is indeed inspired casting.
Great too is Jason Mac as the angry and stubborn Nick. Mac – who also directed, wrote, and produced – has crafted a film direct in its message yet presented with a tender touch, never allowing the themes of parental abandonment and free will to overwhelm his characters and story. This is especially prevalent in the films’ “faith” element that is woven by Mac with a deft touch.
Set and shot in South Carolina, the main set piece of A Father’s Legacy is a house by a pond, the earthly colours of its surrounding captured wonderfully by cinematographer John Carrington (Blackbear). The house belonged to Mac’s late father, to whom Mac has dedicated A Father’s Legacy. It is a worthy and moving tribute.
