Despite the title, maybe this film had an indie production studio controlling the story, to fit a certain demographic or if it was a story born from a production studio that was developed by an in house writer, anyway it had the feel of it certainly. It's a very by the numbers, safe, predictable film, thats been done before.
If you think about it, there must be 1000's if not more protagonists like this one in the real world, divorced, irresponsible, late 30's and living in the past, why is this guy, this character and his particular life written/filmed, fictional or not. He seems to fit into that generic catagory of what I said with no other interesting traits, characteristics that make you sit up and pay notice of him.
The 1st act had that cliched "music over top of showing the protagonist in the daily life" feel, putting this film into the 1000's of other generic plots like this, there was nothing in the 1st act that made the character unique and stand out. Why am I watching this guy? what makes him memorable, as i said there are 1000's of guys just like this.
Think about it this way: say you're an executive producer and I walk into your office and say "I want to do a show about a man who get's into the drug industry, works his way up the ranks making and selling drugs to become a feared druglord"
you say "meh...what else you got?" I say "Let me rephrase that Mr. E.P., I want to do a show about the LAST guy on earth you'd ever imagine would get involved/be capable of making and selling crystal meth successfully, he becomes the most feared druglord in N America. He's a middle class family man, avoids conflict with others, gets pushed around by his family, when he needs more money he works a second crappy job at a car wash, that lowers his dignity dignity, is pushed around by his boss.
Not only that, the person he makes drugs with is the last person in the world he could, his failed high school student, Jesse Pinkman, he makes drugs to stick it to "the man" Walter White is "the man". Jesse's deal breaker is being pushed around, Walter is going to have him wrapped around his finger, this meager, petty family man/high school teacher" now that's a compelling setup of an average man of which there are 1000's in America, thats a compelling story. I'm not trying to compare this film to Breaking Bad but I'm just showing what you can do with an average suburban, set him up, develop him in an interesting way and change him to a compelling character.
Unfortunately this film does not have such structure to setup this guy have to overcome a seemingly impossible character change.
I was never wondering "how the hell is this guy ever going to get his life together, there's no way he can do it, this guy's one in a million, I have to see this play out", the generic first act setup really doesn't help the film, typical 90's dad who doesn't show up to see his son, parties too much, is told he needs to get his life together...yeah I can see where this is going and how its going to play out, soooooo many times before.
I think the film would have been more impactful if it wasn't jumping to so many areas of the protagonists life, the cousins, the sons, his love life, but have one area thats beyond bad with huge stakes attached and just build and escalate that one situation, instead there are so many areas this man tries to fix that they all feel watered down in terms of compellingness for the viewer, like if he isn't a more responsible father in some specific way he will NEVER get to see him again, ever,
show us the audience just how much the son means to him, let us experience just how much value the son is to him at some point so we can experience the stakes too, show don't tell writer and director. I never once felt that this kid means the world to the protagonist, as I didn't viscerally experience that happen. Lots of telling though in the film.
How do I know these people in the protagonists life mean a lot if you dont show it? bad writing, directing. Instead we have cookie cutter plot points that miss the point of how to deliver compelling stakes for a man's life, shame.
One last little nit pick. What was with the protagonist not buying beer in the opening scenes, why couldn't he get beer? he has a truck and cash? the shops arent closed because his ex just came from the store with beer? such bad writing and directing:
EXT. LIQUOR STORE. EVENING
Guy pulls up to store front in his van as the owner lowers the shutters. Guy races to the store front.
GUY
Hey, can I just run in quick and get a pack of beers, heres $20
OWNER
Sorry man, everywheres closing, EVERYWHERE, its new years eve!
done, sorted. How easy was that?
