Franklin Green is a student who is in group counseling after a suicide attempt. After completing the sessions, he returns to his mother’s home. He has long been estranged from his father Chuck, (Paton Oswald) after a childhood of missed birthdays and sincere but empty promises. Franklin has blocked him from his phone and social media but Chuck is desperate to contact him, to make sure his is OK. Chuck gets an idea from a co-worker (Lil Rel Howery, quite funny in the role). The extremely bad idea is that Chuck will catfish his son by pretending to be an attractive girl.
Chuck selects a real person to be the bait, a sweet waitress from the restaurant he frequents in his town, that he knows a little about. “She” sends Franklin a friend request and the correspondence begins, they never talk on the phone or FaceTime, but Franklin is falling in love. Chuck is only doing this to get to communicate with his son to make sure he’s not feeling depressed again, but is soon in over his head. Franklin decides to travel to Chuck’s town to meet his Becca, but is not permitted to drive by his doctor, in desperation and as a last resort he contacts Chuck and asks him to come and drive him there. Chuck is naturally reticent because his deception is sure to come to light, but he agrees. On the trip, the two actually do form a bond, and it seems Chuck’s plan has at least partly worked, but soon it all goes to hell.
This was a cute, modest comedy written and directed by Franklin (James Morosini) and somewhat based on his life. There are sufficient laughs and emotion to satisfy most movie-goers.
This was a cute, modest comedy written and directed by Franklin (James Morosini) and somewhat based on his life. There are sufficient laughs and emotion to satisfy most movie-goers