Flag Day

It is the long Labor Day weekend and I have no major plans (which is perfectly fine with me because every day is a holiday when you are retired and I have a little getaway planned for next weekend) so I spontaneously decided to see Flag Day last night.  It is based on a true story about how an investigative journalist named Jennifer Vogel (Dylan Penn) makes peace with her dysfunctional, yet charming, father John (Sean Penn).  The narrative begins in 1992 when Jennifer learns from a U.S. Marshall that her father is the head of a notorious counterfeiting operation and that he is now on the run from the FBI.  The action flashes back to Jennifer's childhood when her father makes everything seem like an adventure, her troubled adolescence when she tries to reform him, when she becomes disillusioned with him as a young adult, and when she triumphs over her chaotic upbringing to become a journalist as an adult.  The timeline returns to 1992 and Jennifer sees her father's capture on the news and must then reconcile her feelings for him.  Much of this is very episodic and unfocused (literally).  I suppose it is an attempt to mimic the transitory nature of memories and the sepia-colored home movies of the era but it doesn't really work because the relationship between Jennifer and John never feels fully fleshed out.  There were many moments when my attention wavered because the narrative is so disjointed.  I found both performances to be rather overwrought, although the elder Penn has a much more riveting screen presence than the younger, and there is a surprising lack of chemistry between the two despite the fact that they are father and daughter in real life.  There is not even a satisfying emotional reckoning between the two main characters at the end to make all of the melodrama that precedes it interesting.  The resolution falls really flat.  There are quite a few cameos, including Regina King, Josh Brolin, Dale Dickey, and Eddie Marsden, that seem a bit pointless because none of their characters add much to the story (these actors must have owed Penn a favor because I am not sure what compelled them to be in this movie).  I did like some of the original music by Eddie Vedder, particularly a song featuring his seventeen-year-old daughter Olivia on vocals, but, on the whole, this is a disappointing mess that should be avoided.

Note:  I can't believe this screened at Cannes.