Production
The film is based on a book by the same name by Jack Early. [1]
Delany said that the story appealed to her because "it was the relationship between the two that interested me. We see so many movies now about serial killers, it's really being overdone, so I wanted to emphasize the relationship between father and daughter." [2]
Also she liked that they were no romantic subplot by saying "why is it that in every movie, there has to be a male female thing going on? Why can't it be about a woman and her family and her work? That was the challenge because you want her to be strong and capable, but you also don't want her to be one-dimensional." [2]
Finally she accepted the project because she wanted to work with Charles Bronson. Of the actor she said she "wanted to work with Charles Bronson because he's kind of an icon. It was fun, but he's a tough nut to crack, not easy to get to know. But underneath it all he's a very sweet man, and quite funny." [2]
On his performance Delany added "you watch Charlie with a gun in his hands and you know he's done it so many times, it's so natural to him, this is probably the most talking he's done in a while. He got down. There's an emotional confrontation between us. He did not try to avoid it." [2] She also added that when things got tense on set Bronson would perform impromptu musical numbers to ease the atmosphere. [1]
Delany spent time with cops to prepare for the role. [1]
Reception
Susan Stewart of the Detroit Free Press gave three stars. She wrote that while there is no subtlety it is highly entertaining. Her final consensus was that "it helps that the photography is fabulous, the sets full of quietly significant details, and the score, something you almost never notice on a cop show, is moody in the extreme. "Donato" has elements of the great British TV drama Prime Suspect ; Delany might have taken lessons from Helen Mirren for her tortured, chain-smoking tough gal character. But Delany is so good, she doesn't seem derivative. In the end, Bronson does what Bronson does best, and you want to cheer. [3]
In Kay Gardella's review published in The Gazette, she wrote that while superior cop dramas do exist it was involving one. Of the actors, she says "Delany and Bronson work well together. Bronson shows a warmer, more caring side than his usual tough-guy image allows. And Delany, as attractive as ever, is crisp and efficient as cop." [4]
In his Los Angeles Times review, Jon Matsumoto gave the film credit for trying "to inject some complex human interaction into its standard mystery-thriller format. But alas this film is so unconvincing as a relationship movie that you end up wishing it had solely been a thrill-packed whodunit." He appreciated Xander Berkeley's performance saying that he "brings the right dose of crazed intelligence to his role of the psychopath." [5]
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