Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Double Dad (Pai Em Dobro)’ On Netflix, A Sweet Brazilian Comedy Where A Teen Girl Tries To Find Out Who Her Father Is

In Double Dad (Pai Em Dobro), now streaming on Netflix, an 18-year-old girl dreams of discovering the identity of her father. The film is yet another on the ever-increasing list of Portuguese-language films on the streamer, and this time around, it’s acceptable fare for the whole family. Is this quirky Brazilian adventure worth the time? We’re here to find out. 

DOUBLE DAD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Every year on her birthday, Vicenza (Maisa Silva) wishes for the same thing: to know who her father is. Vicenza’s eighteenth birthday is no exception, but her mother Raion (Laila Zaid) still refuses to give her any information. They seem happy with their lives in a hippie commune somewhere beautiful in Brazil, but it’s clear Vicenza yearns for something more. When her mother takes a trip to India, Vicenza seizes the opportunity to find out the truth about her father. With only a photo from a past Carnival to guide her, she sets off for Santa Teresa in the hopes of connecting with her potential father. She’s delighted to find that Paco (Eduardo Moscavis) is an artist like herself, but she is not as warmly received by him. It takes him some time to accept the possible reality of the situation, but he comes around, and they begin to bond as she experiences the outside world for the first time and he takes a shot at fatherhood.

Just when things seem perfect, however, Vicenza discovers a second photo – one of her mother with another man during the same time period. Now unsure of her father’s identity, she goes to pay him a visit too. Giovanne (Marcelo Médici) is seemingly the opposite of Paco; he’s a financial advisor who seems to have it all together, and he takes the news better than one might expect. Vicenza connects with both men in the way she’d always hoped she might with her father, only further complicating the situation. With two potential fathers, a mother abroad, and a new group of artsy friends around, Vicenza gets more than she ever bargained for.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Double Dad feels like Mamma Mia! meets Eat, Pray, Love, a fish-out-of-water story with a wholesome hunt for truth.

Performance Worth Watching: The ensemble here is very solid, but as Giovanne, Marcelo Médici is just utterly endearing. His nervous energy and immediate affection for Vicenza is enough to make your heart melt, and he subverts expectations with his businessman with a heart of gold persona.

Memorable Dialogue: It might seem on the nose, but I was charmed by the words of Mother Moon after Vicenza struggles to complete her self portrait: “You have to know yourself better before making a self portrait”. It really sets things up for the journey to come. 

Sex and Skin: While there are some references to Vicenza’s mom’s flings, there’s nothing explicit here. Family friendly fare.

Our Take: There’s a sweetness to Double Dad that caught me off guard; maybe it’s because I’m so used to watching more cynical stories play out, or maybe it’s because I myself have become a bit of a cynic, but I was not expecting to get as warm and fuzzy as Double Dad made me feel. It’s a simple enough tale, one we’ve seen play out before in favorites like Mamma Mia!, but it feels like a story all its own, one with a big heart and open arms for all who wish to embrace it. The key to the film is Maisa Silva, a dazzling young performer who has exactly the Netflix teen star energy one expects from flicks of this nature. She plays the wide-eyed hippie-girl-meets-city-life part without it ever coming off too campy or try-hard, and her earnestness is totally believable. Double Dad doesn’t work without Vicenza, and Silva perfectly fits the bill, pushing us to cheer for her victories and ache for her failures. The entire ensemble follows suit, coming together to create a crew endearing, funny, and, despite the silliness of a lot of the writing, wholly authentic.

Double Dad juggles multiple storylines with ease, including Vicenza’s budding love story, Raion’s goofy trip to India, and the respective dads’ own lives and the way this all affects them. The messaging here – about forging one’s own identity and choosing your family – is wholesome and important, even if it is coated in some saccharine storytelling. It’s nice to see these kinds of themes in a film targeted towards tweens and younger teens, and I really appreciated that the love story was treated as one of the less important ones. This is really Vicenza’s story and about how she chooses to identify herself and who she chooses to surround herself with, and that’s what makes the film so resonant. She doesn’t need anyone or anything to complete her – she gets to choose. How refreshing is that.

Our Call: STREAM IT, if it’s your kind of thing. Double Dad is wholesome and sweet, a welcome escape from the gloom and doom we’ve become a little too accustomed to these days.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Stream Double Dad on Netflix