BDirected by Bob Nelson Starring Clive Owen and Jaeden Lieberher Review by Jon Kissel |  |
A small, sweet film about flawed parents in a decaying community, Bob Nelson's directing debut The Confirmation carries the same patience for small-town dynamics that defined his script for Nebraska. Starring Clive Owen as alcoholic and near-penniless handyman Walt, the film plays out over a couple days while his young son Anthony (Jaeden Lieberher) learns lessons, good and bad, from his wayward father. While Walt has to watch Anthony for a weekend, his most prized possession, an antique tool set, is stolen and he desperately needs it back, both for sentimentality's sake and for its practical use.
There's an undertone of moral awakening to Anthony and Walt's journey that keeps The Confirmation from being an eccentric rural caper. Against a backdrop of the Catholic sacraments that Anthony is going through at school, he's learning how insufficient a black and white morality is. The priest in the confessional wants to know if Anthony's ever lied, but is it wrong to tell your alcoholic father that you couldn't find his booze though it's exactly where he said it was? How about stealing cash from your mother to help your father when he's on the next rung above homelessness? Anthony's well past the age of reason, but he's fast approaching the next level, where it's not enough to put things in right and wrong baskets but in less-wrong and right-ish ones instead.
The fallibility of adults is the ultimate lesson Anthony's taking from the events of The Confirmation, but there's also plenty for him to admire in his father, deeply flawed as he is. Like another pop-culture Walt who always had a solution at the ready, Walt knows what he's doing in the professional facet of his life and builds his entire self image around it. An expert carpenter, he implores his son to think about people that make things, a category he would certainly put himself in. Though he has little, he takes great pride in what he does have, especially that tool set, which is given a respectful, generational awe when the viewer finally gets to lay eyes on them. Nelson allows Walt to be many things, making him a recognizable person with myriad strengths and weaknesses.
Nelson assembles an excellent cast starting with his two leads. Owen is one of my favorite actors, and The Confirmation gives me confirmation bias. He gives Walt a weary honesty, a person resigned to accepting what is worst about himself while still retaining his aforementioned pride. In a tossed-off line after a delirium tremens night, he gingerly asks Anthony if he hurt him in the throes of his disease, a touching instance of shame and self-knowledge. As Anthony, Lieberher is now practiced at being shepherded around by respectable actors, adding Owen to a list that includes Bill Murray and Michael Shannon. The rest of the cast is studded with admirable character actors. Patton Oswalt, Robert Forster, and Maria Bello all play bit roles, and they all bring the same sense of decent struggle that Nelson is pushing in Owen.
As a compelling father-son drama, The Confirmation is a well-crafted and thoughtful success. It's also far more understanding of rustic mores than Nebraska, which laughed at many of its subjects. Nelson has his finger on the pulse of small-town America, a needed insight now more than ever. I'll be watching for whatever he does next. B
The fallibility of adults is the ultimate lesson Anthony's taking from the events of The Confirmation, but there's also plenty for him to admire in his father, deeply flawed as he is. Like another pop-culture Walt who always had a solution at the ready, Walt knows what he's doing in the professional facet of his life and builds his entire self image around it. An expert carpenter, he implores his son to think about people that make things, a category he would certainly put himself in. Though he has little, he takes great pride in what he does have, especially that tool set, which is given a respectful, generational awe when the viewer finally gets to lay eyes on them. Nelson allows Walt to be many things, making him a recognizable person with myriad strengths and weaknesses.
Nelson assembles an excellent cast starting with his two leads. Owen is one of my favorite actors, and The Confirmation gives me confirmation bias. He gives Walt a weary honesty, a person resigned to accepting what is worst about himself while still retaining his aforementioned pride. In a tossed-off line after a delirium tremens night, he gingerly asks Anthony if he hurt him in the throes of his disease, a touching instance of shame and self-knowledge. As Anthony, Lieberher is now practiced at being shepherded around by respectable actors, adding Owen to a list that includes Bill Murray and Michael Shannon. The rest of the cast is studded with admirable character actors. Patton Oswalt, Robert Forster, and Maria Bello all play bit roles, and they all bring the same sense of decent struggle that Nelson is pushing in Owen.
As a compelling father-son drama, The Confirmation is a well-crafted and thoughtful success. It's also far more understanding of rustic mores than Nebraska, which laughed at many of its subjects. Nelson has his finger on the pulse of small-town America, a needed insight now more than ever. I'll be watching for whatever he does next. B
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