Television Reviews : ‘Daughter’ Keeps Soppy Sentiment at Bay

“Macauley’s Daughter” (on cable’s Disney Channel at 9 tonight) is meant to be a heart-warming tale of father-and-daughter bonding, but it takes time to warm up to this Bryan Brown vehicle.

Brown, the respected Australian actor whose most recent film credits include “Gorillas in the Mist” and “Cocktail,” plays Macauley, a ‘40s drifter in the outback, surviving on side-show boxing matches and ranch work.

When he’s suddenly saddled with his 7-year-old daughter Buster (Rebecca Smart), it cramps his style. It is obvious, however, that Mac will succumb to Buster’s spunkiness and loyalty. The only mystery is how long it will take.

Why is Mac stuck with Buster? Because, while on the rebound from Lily (Noni Hazelhurst), he married Marge (Lorna Lesley), spent six months with her, then took to the road. When he returned seven years later, he found Marge with another man, was outraged and took Buster out of spite.

Although director George Ogilvie’s avoidance of soppy sentiment is to be applauded, viewers have a problem: how to like angry, cold Mac for the first half of the film.

For at least an hour he seems little better than a kidnaper. It would help if Tony Morphett’s script (based on D’Arcy Niland’s novel “The Shiralee”) let us know sooner that Marge is really an unfit mother.

When Mac finally does start warming up, it’s a credit to Brown’s powerful gifts as an actor that he makes the turnabout so convincing. The remarkable young Smart, with her freckled, pixie face and brash mouth reminiscent of Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon,” makes no small contribution to the chemistry between them.

It’s a long wait, though.