Being Flynn

Paul Dano stars as Nick - the lost soul son of Jonathan (Robert De Niro), who left him behind 18 years ago. All Nick knows of Jonathan comes from letters sent from pop to kid, and advice from his mother, Jody (Julianne Moore), not to become a writer like his old man.

As we see, he does want to be a writer, but needs to work at a local homeless shelter to earn a few bucks to pay the bills. While Nick is trying to make his way through this world, and meets a special new lady, Denise (Olivia Thirlby), Jonathan reaches out to his son, and their interactions bring up all sorts of old feelings and fears, while making us wonder what will become of the father, whose life is spiraling out of control.

Throughout Being Flynn, I kept getting the feeling writer/director Paul Weitz (based on the book from Nick Flynn) was trying to say something deep, meaningful and purposeful, but the movie's strength is observational. The impact comes from watching Dano and De Niro, not so much from the dialogue or story.

Watching De Niro is eye-opening for any member of the audience. He captures Jonathan's delusions, anger, depression, angst and overall decline with a shocking ferocity time and time again as he falls deeper and deeper into the whole he digs for himself. Even Dano gets revved up enough to wake up at some point during the movie and attempt to match De Niro. He can't match the legend step for step, but does a good job keeping up with De Niro.

Yet, Being Flynn takes a while to get going. Eventually, it all starts to make sense and come together as Weitz shows us how mingling with Jonathan starts to awaken Nick as to the future he has and the present problems that must be addressed, but it takes a little too long to get there. Patience pays off, but maybe not enough for most.

If you love watching De Niro, Being Flynn is the movie for you.

Being Flynn is rated R for language throughout, some sexual content, drug use, and brief nudity.