How can be this simply story so touching? I kept asking this question for hours. Is it a parent-child relationship that everyone of us knows (at least from one of its sides) or is it something more? Or is it that lazy tempo that makes this movie so real? And I can't forget the totally beautiful song performed by Emily Blunt (Natasha). Bill Nighy's (Gideon) acting is perfect, too. Every scene in this film fits in it accurately and although the ending is filled with pathos, you'll have to like it. Because you want to believe that life goes that way. You have to see it and the best option is to watch it with your parents. It says things people should tell, but they don't.

"Gideon's Daughter" brings to a TV film a trend that is mostly obvious in literary fiction – the middle-aged man who thinks he is the center of the universe and the whole world revolves around him, and faces some kind of break down if any of his women show a bit of independence.Written and directed by playwright Stephen Poliakoff, he mines similar territory as Cheever, Updike, Ford, Amis, Roth, etc. thrust into the center of English celebrity and political culture. The theme is even awkwardly made redundant by an odd structure of having another middle-aged man tell the tale to another pretty young woman and a mysterious kid.Here, Bill Nighy's media consultant only perceives such events as Princess Diana's death or the upcoming millennium in terms of how it affects him. In press interviews, Nighy has said that Poliakoff intentionally directed him to play the main character as "stripped" but one certainly doesn't see how this catatonic schmoozer even got to his professional pinnacle. His past and current sexual adventures certainly seem more male fantasy than anything based on his charisma of any kind.Tom Hardy, who was quite captivating as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester in the recent Queen Elizabeth I mini-series, shows much more suitable feistiness, as a cross between Jeremy Piven's agent in "Entourage" and Bradley Whitford's canny adviser in "The West Wing."Miranda Richardson has the stereotyped role we've seen many times before of the quirky stranger (she dresses like an old hippie) from another class and lifestyle, but with a pained past with a child, who tempts him to play hooky and more. It is startlingly different for this genre that she is close to age appropriate.A creepy centerpiece, and repeating motif, is the consultant's daughter (Emily Blunt getting to show little of the passion she displayed in "My Summer of Love") singing a lovely ballad in tribute to philanderer Georges Simenon's suicidal daughter. The story is particularly weakened by not seeing more of Blunt's life when she's not being the adoring daughter.I really didn't get that a neglectful father who suddenly discovers he has paternal feelings is then to be considered "obsessive" rather than finally normal, even as she's about to leave the nest. His growing realization of his feelings is the best part of the film but a theme that all parents and grown children need to reconcile as adults-to-adults just drifts off.

Well. What can I really say? It was a marvellous peace of work! In scenes where Stella broke down, I broke down too. Poliakoff is just a genius beyond words and the cast with Miranda Richardson and Bill Nighy is absolutely stunning. Every scene of the film is a thrill and the performances of the cast is GREAT! The character I loved the most was naturally Stella. Stella is played bu Miranda Richardson and GOSH did I become moved! At the end of the movie, it just stroke me how much Stella is like me. At least the wardrobe (;)). The eclectic style and the fresh mind is exactly what moved me in a character. The crying scene is played magnificently by Miranda and I expect her to win an award for this movie. If she doesn't, I will make my own award and give to her. Bill Nighy also did a fantastic job as Gideon himself. My mouth dropped open....And also the music moved me, and the song Gideon's daughter sings.Tp put it all shortly; FANTASTIC!!!

I saw this and thought it would be excellent as I am a great fan of Miranda Richardson, Bill Nighy and Stephen Poliakoff, and contrary to the total slating some people have given it, I thought it was great! The only thing is, I reckon you have to be ready to look deeply into what is actually happening because I (being a drama/English Lit student) thought it was brilliant, but my less creative friends thought it was dull. So you have to be kind of out there, looking deeper into the relationships formed and how the dynamics work blah blah. Excellent performances by Nighy and Richardson (goes without saying - the "video camera" scene in the car is really natural!)and some beautiful cinematography. Gideon's Daughter is a complete contrast to the also excellent The Lost Prince, another Poliakoff/Richardson formula which was probably more successful because it was on a "real" level.