First of all, I wanted to like this movie. I like Penn (in both his acting roles and 'some' as director - 'Into The Wild' was fantastic), I like Morse and Nicholson is a good addition as well. The subject of the movie resonates with me too - a father wanting to exact revenge on the drunk-driver killer of his little girl. What father wouldn't feel like that? However, mashing all this together for a film - it just doesn't work.

Why? For me - the story was too meandering, too off-the-beaten-track to hook in the viewer. Nicholson's erratic behaviour as a drink-guzzling, topless bar frequenting Lothario - although giving us a look into how his life has become empty and shallow - does not give us much sympathy for him. He tracks down his daughter's killer and gives him 3 days grace. After such time, he will come and shoot him dead. The first question in my mind was why? Why not kill him there and then - get it over with - after all he had been waiting 7 years already.

Morse - who had obviously pumped iron for the intervening time in jail - plays his part as best as he can. He's not given much in the way of a script to flesh out his character but he does well to personalise and internalise the pain. Nicholson does okay too - his acting a little spotty at times but in the main he holds it together quite well. A decent turn from Angelica Huston adds to the film. Robin Wright-Penn though does not. It's not entirely her fault as her part is completely irrelevant as Morse's not-quite-love-interest. (In one scene - which I had to replay to see if I saw it properly the first time - I thought Morse had broken her neck for no apparent reason. But it turned out to be a cuddle. Strangest cuddle ever if you ask me.) So the movie meanders through a series of not very exciting moments until we end up at the end of the 3 days with a chase between Nicholson and Morse. This, although leading to some redemption, is almost laughable. First of all Nicholson is an old man, coming off the back of a night of beer and cigarettes and generally out of shape. Morse, on the other hand, looks like a clean-living, hard-working, in-shape perfect human specimen - but yet cannot outrun his predator. A preposterous chase from his trailer through the streets of downtown (where Nicholson has umpteen opportunities to kill his prey and doesn't) ends up in the graveyard where the little girl is buried. Causing both men to finally find some solace and finality.

Poor.

Don't get me too wrong here - there are some nice scenes, some good dialog too but it is ruined by an unfocused script and an ending that has to be seen to be dis-believed. Penn has had worse outputs than this and he is clearly learning his craft as he goes along but this does go down as a thumbs down rather than up.

I'll give it 6/10 for an honest effort at telling a well-worn story in a different way but it was a disappointment at the end of the day.

This film should have been good. It has a potentially great plot, and the first few scenes are very good. Then, it simply falls apart, and the main plot is basically ignored for much of the remainder of the movie. I also found the ending to be somewhat disappointing, although it was nice to see the focus back on the central storyline. The acting was certainly good, as you would expect in a Jack Nicholson movie, but the real tragedy is that David Morse was absolutely wasted. He was outstanding, but he rarely had anything to work with. What a disappointment.

with such a good cast, I was shocked I had not heard of this movie. But after watching it, now I understand. It was a pretty good idea for a movie, but not executed very well. I just felt like Sean Penn had all these great ideas and grand schemes for an intense movie. But instead of focusing in on one solid motif, he threw too many concepts and character issues into the mix. The entire stripper / sexual sub plot with Jack could have been completely left out. There was not a lot of depth behind the acting, it was just kinda there.

Like I mentioned, the plot line kinda skated on the surface of being deep. Nothing about the movie really touched me. Especially considering I lost a family member in a similar way, I thought I would be crying my heart out. But honestly I found it barely entertaining. But if nothing is on TV and the internet isn't working, I suggest watching it.