The Netflix description stated that The Dad Quest was about a father-son duo who, after realizing that they were not biologically related, go on a comic hunt to find the kid’s biological father. Well, I don’t deny that they did go on a quest, but contrary to the description, the quest was neither entertaining nor comical. The narrative had a lot of potential, but it was in its execution that it faltered. So let’s find out what happened in The Dad Quest film and if the quest was successful or not.
Spoiler Alert
What was Alicia hiding from Gallo?
There are certain scenes where you can’t really decipher what was happening inside the minds of the characters. Most of the time, writers will give you a bit of context to what’s going on, eventually, but The Dad Quest leaves it to the audience to decide for themselves. The scene I am talking about was the one at the beginning where Gallo, who was a reality show director/producer hailing from Mexico, and his ex-wife met in a restaurant to have a serious conversation. Alicia told Gallo that she had decided to move to Madrid as she had gotten a job offer there, and she would be taking their kid, Benito, with her. Gallo agreed to the proposition in a very casual manner, as if she was just moving to another neighborhood and not to another continent altogether. The lack of emotion made Alicia feel like the man didn’t care about her or their kid. She asked him how he could be so unaffectionate, and she obviously believed that he didn’t love his kid. I believe Gallo was not somebody who loved children in general, and moreover, in the past, he might not have been ready to take the responsibility of his kid. Though it can’t be said for certain, Gallo would have felt relieved in delegating his responsibility and letting Alicia take charge when it came to looking after their son.
Gallo was the kind of man who prioritized his work over everything else, the type who I believe should think really hard before making a commitment and starting a family. That said, I don’t mean that somebody who is a workaholic should never get married, but one should be aware of the fact that priorities change over time, and you need to put your family before anything else. Gallo quite evidently wasn’t able to do that, and that created all sorts of problems in his marital life. He didn’t know anything about his kid, and he wasn’t even interested in getting to know more about his life. During that pivotal conversation, Alicia said something so shocking that Gallo went numb, not knowing how to respond to it. Gallo’s unaffectionate nature made Alicia lose her temper, and she ended up telling him that Benito was not his son. Alicia realized that she had committed a blunder, and so she just got up and left the cafe. The moment she stepped out, she met with an accident and succumbed to her injuries. Gallo couldn’t ask her who Benito’s biological father was and moreover he didn’t know why Alicia had hidden that fact from him all this time and why, of all people, she wanted him to take responsibility for the kid.
How did Gallo find Benito’s biological father?
Gallo knew that there was a possibility he would have to be there for Benito more than he used to. For the time being, Alicia’s mother decided to take Benito with her and look after him. Gallo had his DNA tested, and he realized that Alicia was not lying when she said that he was not Benito’s biological father. Gallo, unable to think about how he should approach the problem, went and told Benito about it. Gallo felt that Benito would break down when he got to know about the issue, but surprisingly the kid didn’t show any emotion. All Benito said was to not tell his grandmother about anything, as she would get worried. Also, Benito wanted to know who his real father was, and Gallo promised him that he would help him find the man. Benito didn’t get shocked by the news, probably because he never saw Gallo as his father. Gallo never had time for Benito and, as stated earlier, he wasn’t aware about what was happening in his life. Gallo and Benito had access to Alicia’s phone, so they started checking out messages to find out who was romantically involved with her. Firstly, they went to meet a man named Federico Alcantara, who was a painter who was so obsessed with the way Alicia looked that he had multiple paintings of her in his studio. The next probable candidate they visited was a dance instructor, and then they tried to go and meet a celebrity named Erik Ruben. Apart from Erik, who refused to talk to Gallo, it became clear that the other men were not Benito’s father. Gallo and Benito went to meet the latter’s teacher/educational counsellor, Diana, who decided to help the duo in their quest. Diana believed that Alicia’s psychologist, Canek, would have some answers, as he knew everything about her. So they went to the psychologist’s place to meet him, and from there they got to know that a man named Enrique Vega, who was Alicia’s boss at her agency, might be Benito’s father. Throughout the entire journey, I felt that Diana and Gallo really struck a chord. Diana seemed to understand Gallo’s sensibilities, and the latter too could open up in front of her without fear of being judged. Also, Diana was very close to Benito, which is why it could be possible that she and Gallo would end up together in the future.
What Changed Between Gallo And Benito?
During The Dad Quest’s ending, Gallo, Benito, and Diana reached Enrique’s house. Gallo had presumed that once Benito found his father, he could stay with him. Seeing the little kid talking to Enrique made Gallo feel a bit possessive. He might not have taken responsibility for Benito or spent time with him, but still, he’d believed that he was his son for the past 9 years. So it wasn’t easy for him at that moment to just leave him. I want to say here these emotions could have been portrayed very beautifully, but somehow the filmmaker dealt with the entire sequence in such a superficial manner that it left little or no impact on me personally. Coming back to the story, Gallo started to feel all sorts of emotions, and he couldn’t fully understand why. All of a sudden, he felt attached to the kid. Since they’d spent a lot of time with each other over the past few days, they had formed a strong bond. Gallo was leaving when Benito spoke to him on the walkie-talkie, with which he playfully communicated with the latter throughout the quest. Benito and Diana came running from behind, and they climbed into his car. Benito told Gallo that Enrique was not his father and that he no longer wished to continue his quest. What it meant was that the kid had also started to feel emotionally attached to Gallo, and he had made up his mind to stay with him. Gallo had never imagined that his life, his priorities, would change so drastically over such a brief period of time. Just before Gallo went with Benito to meet Enrique, he had been told by his superior that his show was getting canceled and that the studio was starting a new reality show. Gallo had decided to go back to Miami, and he’d asked Diana to leave Benito at his grandmother’s. At the airport, Gallo met his old friend, and that meeting had a deep impact on him. Gallo realized that he’d never appreciated what he had, and all his life he’d just kept running. At that moment, Gallo decided to prioritize Benito, even if it came at the cost of him losing his job. I believe this newfound perspective will make things easier for Gallo, and it will let him experience the joy and fulfillment that he never had.
