John Howard is a big bear of a man with a mountainous torso and a face that looks like a cross between that of a lion and a silent-movie villain. The Australian comedy-drama A Man's Gotta Do plays off Howard's brawny physicality, casting him physically to type as a low-level hood who carries out gruesome odd jobs, and against type as a loving husband and family man whose overbearing attention threatens to smother his resentful daughter (Alyssa McClelland). Yet even with Howard's formidable physical and emotional presence at its center, the film feels awfully slight, a fragile wisp of celluloid that could be blown over by a strong gust of wind several counties away.
As the film opens, the virginal McClelland is preparing for her dream wedding to a notorious cad. Alas, her intended groom goes missing in action, sending McClelland into a deep funk. To better understand his daughter's emotions, Howard orders his affable-but-hapless flunky (Gyton Grantley) to start reading her diary, leading to some fairly predictable complications. A surprisingly effective fortuneteller calls it all from the sidelines, while the film's characters take turns addressing the camera to document offscreen events, usually of a gruesome nature. As if that weren't gimmicky enough, McClelland periodically breaks into song to express her feelings.
Many filmmakers would have played A Man's Gotta Do either for sweeping melodrama, wacky farce, or a Quentin Tarantino-like juxtaposition of domesticity and crime. But writer-director Chris Kennedy opts for a safe and timid attack, splitting the difference between the various approaches with a wishy-washy blend of mild domestic comedy, dark comic edges, and earnest family drama. A Man's Gotta Do gets off to a dire start, with some cringe-inducing business involving McClelland's hope that her father will pay for her pre-wedding pubic-hair sculpting. But a fine cast and breezy tone elevate it to exactly the type of adequate time-waster made for intercontinental airplane flights.