Nick (Paul Dano) works in a homeless shelter and sees Jonathan Flynn (Robert DeNiro), his father there. He hasn't seen his father for 18 years.
Based upon a true story.
This is the type of story whereby the main character, Nick, had a disturbing childhood and decided to write about it and now we have the movie. Both Nick and Jonathan have the writing bug.
We see Nick go through many of these disturbing events: was told his father was in prison and upon release abandoned the family, the many boyfriends of the mother (Julianne Moore), the death of his hard working mother, seeing his father in the homeless shelter, drinking and getting into drugs, the hard stuff.
The acting performances all around are very good. Nick's father is con man without game, and thinks extremely highly of himself. It would have been too easy to feel sympathy for the father if he didn't tout himself as a writing genius (without portfolio) at every turn. But, keep in mind, his situation and deep down you feel Jonathan knows his condition, but outwardly refuses to succumb to it and claims he is a survivor.
Sometimes this is hard to watch because we don't like seeing people in the homeless shelter in these circumstances, but if we look outside our comfortable world, we will see real tragedy, people with no hope and who are just trying to make it one more day.
I would have thought that Nick would have been more caring, but he endures the father from a distance, something not lost on the father. His big fear is that he will become his father. However, maybe this was the way it really was. With these true stories we are really never sure how it was back then.
I am so glad that Robert DeNiro has abandoned the so-called "comedies" he had been associated with as I never found him convincing or funny in them. In here, Mr. DeNiro is on his game and if you look into his character's eyes you will see the bottom. Yes, there may be an Oscar for him, but since the movie has not gotten wide appeal, this may be lost as his was truly a class A performance, and deserving of an Oscar.
The ending is okay, kind of bland but tells us hope is alive. (7/10)
Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes. Nudity: Yes, male backsides. Language: A lot in the beginning, then it left us (includes f-bombs)
Based upon a true story.
This is the type of story whereby the main character, Nick, had a disturbing childhood and decided to write about it and now we have the movie. Both Nick and Jonathan have the writing bug.
We see Nick go through many of these disturbing events: was told his father was in prison and upon release abandoned the family, the many boyfriends of the mother (Julianne Moore), the death of his hard working mother, seeing his father in the homeless shelter, drinking and getting into drugs, the hard stuff.
The acting performances all around are very good. Nick's father is con man without game, and thinks extremely highly of himself. It would have been too easy to feel sympathy for the father if he didn't tout himself as a writing genius (without portfolio) at every turn. But, keep in mind, his situation and deep down you feel Jonathan knows his condition, but outwardly refuses to succumb to it and claims he is a survivor.
Sometimes this is hard to watch because we don't like seeing people in the homeless shelter in these circumstances, but if we look outside our comfortable world, we will see real tragedy, people with no hope and who are just trying to make it one more day.
I would have thought that Nick would have been more caring, but he endures the father from a distance, something not lost on the father. His big fear is that he will become his father. However, maybe this was the way it really was. With these true stories we are really never sure how it was back then.
I am so glad that Robert DeNiro has abandoned the so-called "comedies" he had been associated with as I never found him convincing or funny in them. In here, Mr. DeNiro is on his game and if you look into his character's eyes you will see the bottom. Yes, there may be an Oscar for him, but since the movie has not gotten wide appeal, this may be lost as his was truly a class A performance, and deserving of an Oscar.
The ending is okay, kind of bland but tells us hope is alive. (7/10)
Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes. Nudity: Yes, male backsides. Language: A lot in the beginning, then it left us (includes f-bombs)