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A time came in Sean Penn’s career when his personal demeanor and behavior became his own worst enemy, despite his prodigious talent. And he was well aware of it. I’ve previously quoted the words from his acceptance speech when he was awarded the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in “Milk,” which read: “I know how difficult it is for people to appreciate me.” And although it seems that his life is more settled and in some respects productive now than it was during his Hollywood hellion days, he has developed a self-defeating tendency in his artistic endeavors over time.
A passionate and increasingly capable director, he demonstrated himself in “The Indian Runner,” “The Crossing Guard,” and the forthcoming “The Pledge.” It was a bravura effort that was eye-opening and virtuosic in several ways, but it valorized its self-destructive lead character in ways that some might consider philosophically untenable. “The Last Face,” released in 2017, went even further into the realms of bathos and directorial self-aggrandizement. His new film, “Flag Day,” marks the first time he has taken on the role of an actor in a film he is directing. Dylan Penn and Hopper Jack Penn, two of his children, agree with him.
The fact that the film is about a family undertaking is not a significant issue. After spending several days stretched out on an ancient medieval rack, both Dylan and Hopper Jack are more than capable performers. Dylan, who resembles her mother, Robin Wright, and Hopper Jack, who looks more like Spike Jonze after being stretched out on an ancient medieval rack, are both better than capable performers. The source material, a memoir by journalist Jennifer Vogel about her career criminal father, counterfeiter and con man John Vogel, proves to be the film’s biggest stumbling block. Both the story as a whole and the character of John, who Penn portrays here, inspire Penn to stage some distinctive dysfunctional family dynamics in a more-than-reasonable manner, as well as romanticizations and acting-outs of a truly jaw-dropping variety, which he then incorporates into his performances.
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The film opens in 1992, with Jennifer, played by Dylan, discovering just how skilled a counterfeiter her father had been. This is intercut with footage reminiscent of the “Sugarland Express” in which a fleet of police cars pursues a lone vehicle that can’t get away from them. Penn, who has been made up to appear younger and sporting some real slick-reprobate facial hair, smokes a cigarette and lays out some coolest-guy-in-the-universe schtick on little-girl Jen in the 1970s (Addison Tymec). Despite Penn’s excellent performance, John’s “roguish” charm is a little stale, both conceptually and in terms of physicality; he is far, far better in the film the closer he gets to his own age, and the more he is forced to play an increasingly broken and ultimately pathetic failure.
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Patty, played by Katheryn Winnick, is the drunken mother who eventually straightens out and becomes a different kind of drag, one who also turns a blind eye to her new husband’s attempts to molest Jennifer. John is the absentee father whom the children (Hopper Jack is Jen’s younger brother Nick) adore. I’m not sure how many liberties Penn and his team, working from a script written by Jez Butterworth and his brother John-Henry Butterworth, took with their source material, but the way much of it plays out here feels more like a movie than a real-life event. “Flag Day” manages to underplay both John Vogel’s cunning and Jennifer Vogel’s ability to rise above a difficult upbringing in a subtle but effective manner. The film’s first half is filled with scenes in which the actors express themselves completely without restraint while a handheld camera tries to keep up with them. Every aspect of the presentation is undifferentiated and haphazard. Every now and then, a flashback will attempt to transport the viewer back to a specific mood or theme, and most of the time, the device appears to be a stretch—which makes it all the more perplexing when, late in the film, Penn connects with a flashback that actually represents the way he wants it to.
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Once Jen is fully inhabited by Dylan and moves in with John in order to try to get both of their lives back on track, the film stops fretting and reveals a straightforward, committed side to its characters. Both Penns deliver outstanding performances in these scenes, and “Flag Day” begins to travel to some unusual emotional destinations.
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But. Then. That brings us to the conclusion. Which, as one can discover on the internet, is actually accurate in terms of the facts surrounding the conclusion of John Vogel’s professional life. However, this provides Penn with the opportunity to engage in some of the most egregious grandstanding he has ever engaged in as a director and as an actor. Is he going to turn down this opportunity? He does not, in fact. Consequently, I doubt that you will see a more ridiculous conclusion to any film this year than the one found in this one.
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The film is currently showing in theaters.
For more personality quizzes check this: World War Z Quiz.
