Review by Bob Ignizio
Here we have yet
another example of the “manic pixie dream girl” movie. To save
you the trouble of looking it up on TV Tropes.com or Wikipediea, the
MPDG movie is one in which a vivacious, childlike woman with no inner
life or goals of her own teaches a tough, cynical, but good at heart
guy important life lessons about how to live, love and be a better
person.
In
BAREFOOT the guy is
Jay (Scott Speedman), the black sheep of a wealthy family. A janitor
at a mental health facility, Jay is currently on parole and on the
run from a loan shark. While on the job he meets Daisy (Evan Rachel
Wood), a new patient who has led an extremely sheltered life thanks
to her controlling mother. Mom has recently passed away leaving Daisy
in a state of shock, but even at her best Daisy can barely function
in the real world. In classic MPDG fashion she acts more like a child
than the adult woman she is. And, you guessed it, she tends to traipse around sans footwear.
