My Review of "Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor"

Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor is a very low budget Canadian film that came out in 2021. Although the main story talks about a specific situation, I'm sure a lot of us can still relate to it. It dives into some common issues we all have with families and the community our families live with.

The movie starts off very somberly with a death in the family. John the patriarch of the family had just lost his wife to cancer. His wife had not disclosed how bad her cancer was until it was too late.

To help comfort their father and to grieve themselves the two siblings come back to the small town in which John lives in. We have Tammy and her boyfriend Byron and then we have our main character Dawn.

Dawn happens to be a transgender woman but she hasn't seen or talked to her family since she left ages ago. No one had any idea that she was transitioning while she was away for all this time. Nobody except for Dawn's mother and one other person in this small town.

This brand new piece of information causes even worse friction with the family because they're already dealing with the death of the matriarch of the family. Even worse there are a handful of people in this small town that aren't very accepting of Dawn's transformation.

In this movie the family has to navigate to figure out what it means to be a family again while grieving for their loss. It's an intriguing dynamic that is very specific but is still relatable. Often times family members only get back together when there's a big event such as a wedding or a funeral. A lot can change within a few years. We've all been in somewhat similar situations as this or can see situations like this arise in a different way.

I loved the plot point of this movie however the execution isn't totally there. It can get quite uneven at times but you also have to consider that it's a very low budget film too.

The acting is uneven but then again I'm not sure if it's the actors fault when some of the dialogue or situations that they're put in feel somewhat like a public service announcement (PSA). At times I felt like it was a bunch of short PSA's bound together to let us know what's right and what's wrong.

Usually there's a bit more subtlety to messages in movies but this one bangs you on the head a lot. Everything is pretty predictable as well. That goes without saying seeing as this movie is very frank with its audience.

Despite this there is still a nice message delivered in this movie and they did a lot of things right. The relationship with the two daughters and their father was well done. They formed a good dynamic relationship throughout the movie.

They could have added a little more meat to the relationship of Dawn and her father with the tractor. I felt that it was a little uneven with some of its story played out in a montage.

Overall, it is still a entertaining movie and that's all that counts. Movies aren't easy to make so I have to commend them for making this movie. They did a good job with what they had. There could be a lot of improvements to it but I'm sure that their next movie will be that much better with what they learned with this movie. That's why I have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. It is not a terrible movie at all. They can and will do better in the future, I'm sure of it.