Flag Day

The Penns give committed - and in Dylan's case exposed - performances.

Sean has powerful, painful scenes with Dylan, who is the spitting image of her mother, Robin Wright, and has inherited some of her poise too.

That Penn doesn't want to make a straight crime thriller is laudable - less clear is what he wants to make instead.

Far from the best of Penn's directing work but also not the worst (The Last Face is unlikely to lose that dubious crown). Dylan emerges the most triumphant Penn from a largely boring drama.

Flag Day desperately wants to be an impassioned testament to the lives of both Jennifer and Dylan, but is hardly ever able to escape the myopic lens of its craftsman.

Clearly, the picture is a labor of love by the Penns, but too often it just feels labored. There's a sense of everyone trying too hard.

Flag Day refuses to ponder challenging ideas but still wants its viewers to be moved.

A drama with little dialogue, lots of music and too much screaming, and bogged down by Penn's directorial toolbox... full of commonplace American indie clichés from the last three decades. [Full review in Spanish]

It is as if Penn has taken all the worst tendencies of all the directors he's worked with over his lauded career (including his own worst instincts) and crammed them all into one film, one in which he gives yet another undeniably fantastic performance.

Flag Day comes across as a passion project to simultaneously boost Sean Penns profile whilst bonding with his daughter, but only the former comes across on screen.