Review of The Chaperone

The Chaperone (2011)
Don't call me Ray-Ray, it is just Ray.
2 May 2020
I watched this on Amazon streaming movies. I was attracted to it mainly because it is set and filmed in places I used to live, I am always curious to see how the moviemakers handle that.

It is a theme used many times, a man gets out of prison after 7 years and has to try to get back in the good graces of his family. In this case it is mostly the young daughter who is about 12 years old. Paul Levesque is an imposing man, playing the ex-con Ray Bradstone who his old robbery mates called "Ray-Ray." In prison he has become a changed man and just wants to go by Ray. And get his family back.

Ray's daughter is in school in Lafayette (where I went to college some years back) and her class is taking an overnight trip to New Orleans. Ray quite accidentally gets to be a chaperone, much to the chagrin of his daughter. While the kids are trying to enjoy the field trip Ray is being hounded by his former partners who think he has the money from a botched robbery of the bank in Lafayette the day before.

The arc of the story is pretty predictable but I found it interesting to see how they got there. The movie overall is entertaining enough. Interestingly the daughter is played by Ariel Winter who probably was 12 during filming but doesn't seem to be in the cast credits. She was so small, it was quite a sight to see her standing or walking next to Levesque.

Plus the Lafayette scenes were filmed in Algiers near the bridge, not far from where my wife grew up and went to school, just across the river from downtown New orleans while the New Orleans scenes were filmed in and near downtown and the French Quarter.

Not a bad movie at all, just lightweight.
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