| Barefoot | |
| Director: | Andrew Fleming |
| Producer: | Lisa Demetree David Scharf |
| Starring: | Evan Rachel Wood Scott Speedman Treat Williams Kate Burton J. K. Simmons |
| Music: | Michael Penn |
| Cinematography: | Alexander Gruszynski |
| Editing: | Tara Timpone |
| Studio: | WhiteFlame Productions |
| Distributor: | Roadside Attractions |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $7.4 million[1] |
| Gross: | $15,071[2] |
Barefoot is a 2014 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Andrew Fleming and distributed by Roadside Attractions. It was written by Stephen Zotnowski and is a remake of the 2005 German film Barfuss.[3] Its story follows Jay, the son of a wealthy family who meets Daisy, a psychiatric patient who was raised in isolation, as he takes her home for his brother's wedding. It stars Evan Rachel Wood, Scott Speedman, Treat Williams, Kate Burton and J. K. Simmons.
The film was produced by WhiteFlame Productions and premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 2, 2014, before receiving a limited release on February 21, 2014. It grossed $11,767 during its opening weekend and $15,071 worldwide. It received negative reviews and has a 14% approval rating based on 21 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]
Jay Wheeler, the "black sheep" son of a rich family, works as a janitor at a Los Angeles, California psychiatric hospital as part of his probation. One night, he overhears another janitor, Frakel, telling a patient that he's a doctor in order to rape her. Jay knocks out Frakel and tells the patient, Daisy Kensington, to go back to bed. Daisy, having been admitted to the hospital after being raised in isolation and being barefoot all her life, decides to follow Jay out of the hospital.
Rather than send Daisy back, Jay brings her home for his brother's wedding in New Orleans, Louisiana to convince his family that he has straightened out his life. While she impresses them, she also admits to Jay that she was in the hospital for killing her mother. Jay's father, suspecting that something is amiss, presses her for information, causing Daisy to have a panic attack. Jay gets her into a cab, and tells them the truth, only having come home to get money to pay back a loan shark. Jay and Daisy return to his parents' house, and set out back home in an RV.
Despite the fact that they are both being hunted; they enjoy each other's company. They pull over so he can sleep and, during the night, Daisy wakes him up due to a cop having pulled up behind. While Jay hides in the cupboard, Daisy tells the cop that her boyfriend, "Beaver", ran away when he saw the flashing lights. The cop tells her that his father's name was Beaver, before proceeding to check the RV. He leaves and walks into the bush on the side of the road to find "Beaver". While the cop is distracted, Daisy throws away the keys to his car, so that she and Jay can escape.
Later, when they make a stop, Jay makes a phone call to Dr. Bertleman, the doctor who was handling Daisy. She then overhears him saying that he is going to take her back to Los Angeles only to bring her back to the psychiatric hospital. She runs away to the RV alone and attempts to drive away before Jay can get to her, but crashes the RV. As Jay opens the door, she climbs out crying, as other people come to check on them. Jay, curious about Daisy, not truly believing she's schizophrenic as her doctor believes, asks her about whether the voices told her to kill her mother. Daisy tells him that it wasn't her who heard voices, but her mother. Her mother was screaming one night but Daisy didn't go to her, and when she woke up in the morning her mother was dead, causing Daisy to believe that she killed her mother. A group of cop cars showed up to arrest Jay and Daisy, assuming that one of the bystanders to the crash called them, and they arrest Jay.
Jay's mother convinces her husband to bail Jay out, and Jay returns to his apartment, only to find his belongings torn apart as the loan shark comes to collect his debt. Jay flees to the psychiatric hospital to see Daisy, but the security and Dr. Bertleman tell him to leave.
Desperate, Jay goes to the train station and lies down on the tracks, so that he'll be deemed suicidal and be taken to the psychiatric hospital. Dr. Bertleman, knowing that Jay is fine and that it was just a ruse, dismisses Jay, but after Jay insists that he is suicidal, the doctor puts him in solitary confinement. While at the hospital, another patient gives Jay information on Daisy's well-being and confirms that they're being kept apart.
Frakel sneaks the loan shark's goon into the hospital, where he then goes and strangles Jay using a chain. As Jay is struggling to get him off, the patient who was giving him information takes out the goon by hitting him in the head with a broom. After this Jay wakes up in the hospital, where Dr. Bertleman apologizes to Jay about Frakel and tells him he was right about Daisy's mother, who was schizophrenic. Dr. Bertleman then decides to release them both from the hospital. Jay receives a letter from his father, which contains a $40,000 check to pay off his debts. Jay then meets Daisy at the hospital entrance, where they reconcile before leaving together.
Barbara VanDenburgh of the Arizona Republic rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and called the film an "offensively infantilizing [...] spectacularly wrong-headed, chemistry-free romance, and too dumb to know how sexist it is" and calling Evan Rachel Wood's character "a cartoon character" similar to the Little Mermaid who "all but brushes her hair with a fork".[5]