Flag Day: A Review

 

Flag Day’s Counterfeit Life and the Ones Who Get Taken In

Flag Day is the story of con man John Vogel (Penn) told in flashbacks by his daughter Jennifer, who wrote the book it’s based on. Called Flim Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life. Jennifer Vogel, played by Sean’s real life daughter Dylan Penn, is a character study in heart break and unmet expectations. It’s more than just heartbreak that comes from a broken home though. In this case both parents failed spectacularly, her dad a small time crook who left them at a vulnerable age. Her mom, an alcoholic struggling to raise two kids and hold herself together.

A Deep Dive

This is Sean Penn’s latest film that he both acted in and directed. Since it’s a true story the real work is done by examining the motivations of the characters. It’s not a mystery or a yarn. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the story from news accounts, the film catches you up right away. The first scene shows a police chase and a detective handing her a $100 note. Jennifer’s reaction to the counterfeit currency sets the tone for the deep dive into her relationship with him. She examines it closely and says “Beautiful”.

Beautiful, because her father wanted to matter and create something lasting and remarkable more than he wanted anything else. But his inventions and business ideas never panned out.

Summary

A high school age girl tries to find her father who left her and her brother years ago. Her parent's marriage failed because of his frequent trouble with the law. He leaves the kids with Patty and takes off. Jennifer only remembers the good times with him and faces a rude awakening when she moves in to try to fix him up. But John's in rough shape, mirroring her own recent trouble.

When he’s not running away from goons he took loans from he’s starting fires and collecting insurance money. This is never completely spelled out but it’s clear, deceit and destruction are his tools of the trade. John isn’t a guy who caught an unlucky streak on the horses or got himself in deeper than he wanted. He’s a sociopath. He’ll walk away from a business or a family like it’s a fire.

Family Man

During the few scenes when he’s apologetic or warm, it’s because he thinks it’s what people want to hear. Or, it’s because he needs them to relax and not look too close at his dealings.

Like the scene when Jennifer confronts him about his drug use. He denies it completely and feigns shock. It’s almost laughable. He keeps playing the ‘straight edge’ dad role far beyond a believable point.

He imagines what a dad would say when she tells him about her drug use and comes up with stock phrases like "I'm really mad at you!" which isn't something anyone actually says. They just react.

Sean Penn is good in this, maybe too good. Seeing him onscreen, half lit cigarette and a scruffy beard makes me think he’s just playing himself. His expression is mostly a mix of sleeplessness and regret. It’s not a typical I-wish-I’d-been-there-for-my-kids regret; he regrets not having an easier life.

Memories Lie

 A young girl’s memory of her father in adolescence is unshakable. We can see that John appreciates his kids and invites them into his world, on occasion, after the divorce. There is the summer at the lake in Minnesota, and the Flag Day celebrations. There are road trips across the country with the family. He tries to do dad things, music and movies and barbecues. John Vogel does have a heart and Sean Penn brings this to the surface. But the sense is these “dad” things are to advance a relationship and appear normal and All American.

Most of the time Jennifer and her brother Nick (played by Sean’s son Hopper) live with their mother Patty. Her father being the missing piece (she thinks) in her life. Her and her mother’s relationship is messy so she runs away from home. Her drug use starts here, on the road sleeping on the streets. The film’s portrayal of her descent into drug abuse and homelessness isn’t believable. The make up artists try to make her grungy and hopeless but it doesn’t work. Dylan is too pretty to pull off the goth girl with an ugly habit.

Another aspect that didn’t work was the music. I don’t usually notice music but with all the talk of John’s love of classical it seems that genre should have played a bigger part. Instead they had emotionally tedious songs by Glenn Hansard and Eddie Vedder. The idea was probably to recreate some of the magic Vedder created with “Into the Wild”. Not so as it turns out.

Themes

The strength of the movie is the underlying sense that our nature is fixed. John Vogel was a counterfeiter in more ways than one. No amount of fixing him would ever work. But we play the fool when we pretend things aren’t as they seem and ignore our better instincts. Katheryn Winnick who plays Jennifer’s mother Patty sums up this lie in a moment of real honesty. “I used to tell myself, Patty, you never saw a 3 story building before you met John Vogel. You were young and he was a tidal wave. But the truth is, I wasn’t that young.”

Flag Day is named that because John was born on that day and celebrates with patriotic zeal. The display of fireworks, waving flags and red, white and blue is a device to accentuate his public persona. People see the All American dad, but under the colors is a guy who puts himself first. 

It ends the only way it can.