Review: Being Flynn

Based on a memoir by Nick Flynn, Paul Dano stars as- get this- Nick Flynn, a wannabe great writer, who is the estranged son of Jonathan Flynn (Robert De Niro), a wannabe great writer in his own right. Actually, he already equates himself with the greatest of American authors like Mark Twain and J.D. Salinger. Yeah. But in reality, Jonathan (who also works as a taxi driver. Yeah, I’ve seen that movie too...) is on the skids and going to waste. He has been evicted from his messy apartment, is racist and homophobic, and now needs the son he hasn’t seen in nearly 20 years to come pick him up. So Nick, flanked by his gay and African-American roommates (*sigh*) go and collect the old man. The next time he sees his father, Nick is working in a homeless shelter when Jonathan (an alcoholic) walks in looking for a roof over his head for the night, having exhausted the patience of everyone else in his life. Unfortunately, Jonathan proves more than a handful, and frankly just ungrateful and mean.

 

Meanwhile, Nick (who doesn’t let anyone read his work) is plagued by the tragic death long ago of his loving but fragile mother (Julianne Moore, in flashbacks) whilst Jonathan was AWOL (in prison for some of the time, apparently). Olivia Thirlby plays a pretty girl who works at the shelter and loves Nick. But is Nick doomed to screw things up for himself just like his father before him? Will Jonathan be able to quit with his delusions and lies (he seems to always have financial interest in his grand, unfinished novel) and get his damn act together? The latter seems far more unlikely than the former. William Sadler turns up briefly as an old acquaintance of Jonathan’s, and Lili Taylor and Wes Studi help run the homeless shelter.

 

Two things occurred to me about this largely unseen 2012 film from writer-director Paul Weitz (“American Pie”, “About a Boy”). The first is in regards to its biggest name, Robert De Niro. Long gone are the days when De Niro seemed to care about his career or body of work, outside of maybe versatility. His mind and heart seem more invested in his film festival and restaurant chain than in making movies. One of America’s greatest ever actors seems to choose movie projects that aren’t necessarily the best use of his immense talent (I haven’t seen his Oscar-nominated work in “Silver Linings Playbook” yet, though. My aversion to Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence is keeping me away at the present. Ditto “American Hustle”, which otherwise looks good).

 

The second thing that occurred to me about this film is that the character De Niro plays in this film seems far more like a Jack Nicholson role or a Dustin Hoffman role than a De Niro one. I couldn’t shake that feeling from my mind for some reason throughout this film. The baseball bat and aggression could be applicable to De Niro, and certainly the taxi driving. De Niro opening the film by narrating from a taxi is awfully unnerving I must say, as is his plan to ‘transform this cesspool of a world’. But playing a pretty irresponsible, dishevelled, wannabe charming rogue with delusions of grandeur and infrequent bouts of homelessness aren’t to me the best fit for De Niro, nor does the role deserve his major talents (nor Jack Nicholson’s for that matter). He’s fine in the role, I suppose, but it’s still not a good fit for him nor worthy of him. Is this one of his worst films? No, I can actually see some people liking it, just not me. It has its moments and is light years ahead of “The Last Tycoon” and Weitz’s own terrible “Little Fockers”, but the material here just isn’t worthy. Both of the main characters are pretentious douchebags, and that impedes one’s enjoyment of the film. Why should I care? I have sympathy for the homeless, but not for pretentious and delusional twits like the one De Niro plays here. Paul Dano and I don’t get along most of the time, but I’ll admit that I’ve seen him do a lot worse. It’s a shame the film doesn’t get much mileage out of the trio of Julianne Moore, Lili Taylor (whom I have learned is the real-life spouse of Nick Flynn!), or William Sadler. Moore does as well as she can with a crappy role, whilst Taylor and Sadler barely have walk-ons, ditto the unfortunately rarely seen Wes Studi (Where has this man of great power and presence been since about 2002?). The best performance by far comes from the lovely Olivia Thirlby, but one really good performance (playing a character who drifts in and out of the film) can’t save a film that just doesn’t inspire you to take an interest, because the two main characters seemingly don’t deserve our attention.

 

There is something incredibly tragic about working in a homeless shelter and having to serve your own father, but with this delusional idiot, like I said, it’s hard to care. Acting isn’t the issue, the script is just pedestrian, formulaic, and unengaging. 

 

Rating: C