HE CALLS ME DAUGHTER

This one earns its four stars honestly. HE CALLS ME DAUGHTER gathers women who lived through broken father relationships — some famous, some not — and lets them tell the truth about where that brokenness led them, and how a relationship with Jesus Christ brought them out of it. Theologians and therapists add real insight along the way. Nothing here is exploitative; it's put together with care and lands with real emotional weight.

The catch isn't anything you'll see — there's no violence, sex, or nudity on screen. It's what the women describe: substance abuse, adultery, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, even a stint at a strip club. None of it is graphic, but it's honest, and younger or sensitive viewers may need a parent alongside them.

For older kids, teens, and adults, this is a film worth your time — and a good conversation starter about a subject too many families avoid.

Real women — including comedian Chonda Pierce and actress BJ Arnett — sit down to tell the truth about their fathers: the absence, the pain, the paths it sent them down. Alongside their stories, theologians and therapists offer perspective on what a "father wound" is and why it runs so deep. What ties every story together is where these women eventually found healing.

Four stars means this documentary does what it sets out to do, and does it well. The interviews carry real emotional honesty, and the film is edited to let each woman's story breathe rather than rushing past it. Pairing personal testimony with expert commentary from theologians and mental health professionals gives the film credibility beyond just sentiment — it's informative as well as moving. The result is a documentary that feels purposeful from start to finish, leaving viewers with a renewed appreciation for how much a father-daughter relationship shapes a life.

This is a film built entirely on a biblical foundation, and it shows. Every story in it moves in the same direction: pain rooted in a broken human father, healing found in a perfect heavenly one. The women's testimonies aren't abstract theology — they're lived proof that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can mend what an absent or abusive father broke. Encounters with Jesus sit at the center of the film, and His love is presented as flowing directly from God the Father, who calls each of these women by name.

The documentary doesn't flinch from the damage that leads women to these encounters — dysfunctional families, addiction, abuse — but it never leaves the subject there. Every hard story is rebuked and redeemed rather than left to sit in despair. That redemptive shape is exactly what makes this more than a difficult film to sit through; it's a hopeful one.

What this film understands, and what Scripture has always said, is that our deepest identity isn't determined by the father we were given but by the Father who claims us: "I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:18).

HE CALLS ME DAUGHTER takes a wound many families never talk about and meets it with honesty, compassion, and the hope of the gospel. It's not an easy watch in every moment, but it's a healing one. Our answer: worth the trip — older children and adults.