Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) grew up hating his father. Jonathan Flynn (Robert De Niro), was divorced from Nick’s mom, Jody (Julianne Moore), when Nick was so young he doesn’t remember. And then Jonathan became a notorious no-show. Nick remembers many times being disappointed when his dad didn’t show up for visits, and one, in particular, when he and his mom were waiting in the car for his dad to get off the bus, and the bus unloaded, and his dad wasn’t on it. So Nick and his mom went for an ice cream cone, as consolation, and Nick never got his hopes up again.
Jonathan, we learn, is so completely self-absorbed that he’s delusional. He’s a cab driver who fancies himself as “the world’s greatest writer.” He’s always working on the next Great American Novel, or so he tells himself, continually. Actually, what he’s really doing is drinking, at first after his shift, but then, increasingly, while on it. After a couple of scary incidents where he doesn’t even seem to notice how frightened his hapless passengers are, he finally falls asleep at the wheel and crashes, fortunate not to hurt anyone else, but now, arrested and convicted for drunk driving, doesn’t even have a license any more, much less his job with the cab company. His spiral downward begins to accelerate, as his ongoing battle with the noisy people in the apartment below his escalates into a fisticuffs frenzy, so now he’s evicted. And jobless. But he’s still the world’s greatest writer, so he figures it’s only a matter of time before his genius is discovered, but meanwhile, he needs a place to stay. So he contacts his son, who, ironically, had begun working at a homeless shelter.
Nick is really conflicted now. He doesn’t know whether he really wants to re-establish contact with his dad, but as soon as he does, he realizes that his dad is incapable of delivering the kind of affection he’d always wanted from him. His dad was not only someone who wasn’t there for him when he was a child, he’s not going to be there for him now, either. In fact, his dad is going to be someone difficult to relate to: prickly, proud, easily offended, suddenly violently angry, dissipated, sad, spent. And he doesn’t even realize how pathetic he is, which may be a strange kind of mercy, because the one thing he doesn’t indulge in is self-pity.
Meanwhile, Nick attempts a relationship with a co-worker at the shelter, Denise (Olivia Thirlby, who may be too beautiful for this role), who seems to have a heart for the homeless, but little direction in her own life. Nick begins to realize, with horror, some of the things he has in common with his dad: a canonizing of the departed Jody, though her self-inflicted departure belies this conferring of sainthood. An interest in writing, though Nick is more interested in poetry than prose, and is more intentional about being published. And, worst of all, a kind of aloofness born of an inability to truly empathize with others, which means, for Nick, that most of his relationships are going to be doomed as well.
Both DeNiro and Dano are excellent in their roles, and this script is well-crafted for both. Is it too soon to talk about Oscar performances?
Ronald P. Salfen is interim pastor of St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church in Irving, Texas.
