'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Max and Wally are the father-daughter duo helming Don't Make Me Go, Prime Video's latest winsome drama starring John Cho and Mia Isaac in the lead roles.
Directed by Hannah Marks and written by This Is Us writer and producer Vera Herbert, the film is sure to make you smile, cry and everything in between.
Don't Make Me Go was released on Amazon Prime Video on July 15, 2022, after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 13, 2022. It follows a father and daughter on a cross-country road trip that is filled with fun and fundamentals.
Cho and Isaac's endearing chemistry emotionally involves viewers in this road trip dramedy, making its tragic ending all the more hard-hitting. While Cho plays a strict and possessive father called Max, Isaac balances out his character with her lively and sometimes troublesome teenager.
Right off the bat, Don't Make Me Go warns viewers to expect disappointment. In a voiceover, Isaac is heard narrating, "You're not gonna like the way this story ends." And surely, the third act does pull the rug from under the viewers.
Don't Make Me Go: Wally learned about Max's fun-loving and cool side
The road trip Wally was forced to go on proved to be a life-altering experience for her. Having been raised by her father Max her entire life, she had known him to be strict, protective and inhibited.
However, on this trip to New Orleans, where Max's college reunion was to take place, Wally realized that her father was more than just her father; he was also a person.
She learned about Annie, Max's casual dating partner. At his college reunion, she also learned from Guy, one of Max's friends, that he used to be a brilliant musician and an adventurous guy. It made Wally wonder what made him so boring now. The answer? Fatherhood.
She asked him why he didn't pursue his passion for music. He told her that being an artist was not a stable job and that it led to failure 99% of the time. He needed stability and a sustained source of income to be a responsible parent.
In response, Wally encouraged him to take more chances in life. She wanted Max to be the person he used to be before responsibilities came along.
Max and Wally's road trip had a bitter conclusion in Don't Make Me Go
The destination for Max and Wally's road trip was Louisiana, New Orleans. That was where the college reunion was taking place, and that was also where Wally's estranged mother was supposed to be.
After learning about his terminal illness, Max wanted to acquaint Wally with her mother, who left them when she was a baby, so that she would have some family left after he passed away.
However, their trip got extended to Florida when Nicole, Wally's mother, did not show up at the reunion and Max learned that she had moved to an address near Tampa.
To add more sadness to the already pathos-filled plot of Don't Make Me Go, Wally's mother refused to meet her daughter as she had already moved on with a family of her own.
Enraged and utterly saddened by the turn of events, Wally confronted Max and blamed it all on him. The two had a powerful and heart-rending emotional exchange. Wally convinced him to take a chance and get the surgery even with a 20% chance of success because the alternative was a sure-shot death. All's well that ends well, right? Wrong.
Don't Make Me Go took a chance with its bold twist at the end
If the theme of the story was "taking chances", Don't Make Me Go did it unapologetically. Throughout the film, viewers watched Max and Wally's bond solidifying and going through the ups and downs with the looming poignance of the former's impending demise.
Towards the end of the film, as Wally encouraged Max to demonstrate his singing chops during a karaoke, there was finally a glimmer of hope and happiness. That was until Wally collapsed and died on the spot.
It was eventually revealed that she had a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which meant her heart was engorged and couldn't pump blood.
Earlier in the film, Wally was shown having fainting spells and stress sweating. They were all symptoms of her undiagnosed condition that caught up with her at the anticlimactic end.
In the final scene of Don't Make Me Go, a very distraught Max was shown holding a funeral for his daughter and later sitting alone with her still-packed suitcase from the road trip.
In a voiceover, Wally was heard saying, "My dad taught me a lot of things in life, but I finally taught him something – to take a chance."
As a result of the lesson from his daughter, Max underwent the surgery that saved his life. The film cut to a year later post his surgery and showed him living with Annie, his casual partner turned girlfriend.
"So maybe you're not sold on this story being okay. Whatever. That's up to you," Isaac's voice erupted again. Wally continued to encourage her father's decision to move on in his life in a good way.
What viewers make of the ending of Don't Make Me Go is up to them, as the narration went. However, one message that stands out is that life is unpredictable, and there are no roadmaps for this journey. So one should take chances in life and live it to the fullest.
