Flag Day

Understand this is based on a true story .. but yeah boring, the film is based on the point of view of the daughter ideolizing her father. The double life that the father might have had is not explain, nor demonstrated if not at all. The Genre: Thriller attached to this movie is totally fake. It just a boring drama. The soundtrack is not elevating it either.

It would seems that the only thing that Sean Penn is doing quite well in this movie is promoting his daughter as an actress, and he does not do the same for his son, putting a fake hair on his head making sure we know he just there for show.

Just couldn't hold my interest, to the point I actually stopped 38 minutes in tobgo do laundry. Moved so slowly yet jumped around so much I couldn't develop any kind of relationship with any character. Bored.

As soon as this movie was over both my wife and I said, "I sure am glad I didn't listen to the several very negative reviews." This is a really good movie, it really is Jennifer's story, how she overcame very bad situations in her growing up, both with her father and with her mother. It is a true story and now Jennifer has a family and works as an investigative reporter and is working on her first novel.

The movie is set mostly in Minnesota (filmed in Canada) and the title is a reference to the celebration of Flag Day, with a parade and fireworks. The movie goes back and forth, at times in 1975, 1981, 1985, and 1992 mostly. It is done in a way that it is easy to keep track.

We watched it at home on DVD from our public library. I am neither a big fan of Sean Penn nor a detractor, but to me he is brilliant here as the duplicitous dad who you could never trust to be truthful. And Dylan, his daughter in real life, is really good in the role of the teenage and adult Jennifer.

As "Flag Day" (2021 release; 108 min.) opens, it is "June, 1992" and John (the character played by Sean Penn) is being chased by a police helicopter and a slew of police cars. Along the way we are reminded that the film is "based on a true story". We then go back in time to "Summer 1975", where we get to know John and his daughter Jennifer, then 11 yrs young, as he teaches her how to drive a car (she sits on his lap and he falls asleep, no, really). At home, John is fighting a lot with his wife, much to the chagrin of Jennifer and her brother Nick. At this point we are 10 min into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the first film where Sean Penn directs AND stars (he has directed others before, at times with excellent result, look no further than "Into The Wild"). Here he brings to the big screen the memoir of Jessica Vogel about the complicated relationship with her dad and the rest of the family. While in and of itself this could make for a great film, I'm sorry to report that it didn't happen. There are several factors: first, none of the main characters are all that likeable to begin with. Second, the script is simply very uneven and somehow cannot reel us in to the story. Third, the film's photography is horrendous: quasi non-stop extreme close-ups, with hand-held camera work, and constantly in and out of focus "artsy" looks, resulting in a quasi headache inducing viewing experience. You just wonder: WHY? On the plus side, it is great to see the Penn family, oozing with acting talent. Besides Sean, there is his daughter Dylan (playing Jennifer) and his son Hopper (as Nick). All that said, I was quite disappointed with the film, after seeing the promising trailer in recent weeks. It feels like a lost opportunity.

"Flag Day" premiered at this year's Cannes film festival to mixed reviews. It premiered in US theaters this weekend and I couldn't wait to see it. The Tuesday early evening screening where I saw this at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati turned out to be a private screening: I was literally the only person in the theater. Given that "Flag Day" is unlikely to pick up strong word of mouth, I don't see this playing in theaters much longer. But of course don't take my word for it. If you are a fan of Sean Penn or Dylan Penn, I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (while you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

It's fair to say that the last decade (or more if you want to be brutally honest) has not been a kind one to Sean Penn.

Discounting the collection of personal life issues that have plagued him in this time, Penn's best roles in front of the camera amount to mere cameos in the likes of Tree of Life, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and more recently a scene-stealing segment in Licorice Pizza, while his foray's behind the camera haven't amounted to much with some music videos and the much maligned The Last Face all he can lay claim to as a filmmaker.

Undoubtedly an attempt to stop the run of misfires and failures, Penn launched himself headfirst into his debut outing where he would direct himself in, while at the same time giving his daughter Dylan Penn a chance to take the spotlight as a film lead in this based on a true story tale of journalist/writer Jennifer Vogel's life growing up around serial criminal offender dad John.

Borrowing a style that could be summed up as Terrence Malick lite combined with any other rural crime based drama film from multiple eras, Flag Day feels like an instantly familiar family centered crime drama that never once feels like it's made by the same director that embedded Into the Wild with such heart and energy or The Pledge with such raw emotional power, while in an acting sense, Penn's overacting and inability to make John Vogel anything more than a caricature showcases the performers seeming inability to now be a lead actor.

It's hard to know what Penn wanted out of this story exactly, what drew him to pursue making the tale of the Vogel's into a feature film, there's nothing unique or original about what happens and certainly nothing inspiring about how the story is told in feature form and while his daughter Dylan does a decent job at bringing Jennifer to life, a child, teenager and woman that battles to understand her father that clearly loves her but doesn't do a great job of showing it, no ones coming out of such a bland tale better for the experience.

With nothing drawing everything all together and an unfocused delivery that ensures no extended segments or our main characters are allowed time too properly grow or engage us, Flag Day might not be devoid of solid moments or potential but its an effort that sums up perfectly where Sean Penn is at with his career right now, a place that feels far removed from the likes of Mystic River, I Am Sam, Into the Wild and 21 Grams.

Final Say -

Potentially there's a gripping feature that could exist when telling the story of Jennifer and John Vogel but it's not Sean Penn's newest effort behind and in front of the camera. A mostly lifeless and forgettable drama, it appears as though the best of Penn's days in the industry are long since past if Flag Day is what we're going off.

2 briefcases out of 5

For more reviews check out Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)