Director: Pamela Romanowsky
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 1.0
Successful author Stephen Elliott (James Franco), who writes a lot about his father's mistreatment of him and his mother's death at an early age, is shocked when Dad (Ed Harris) shows up at once of his readings and confronts him about his lies - meanwhile, Elliott's intrigued by a missing woman case involving a supposedly 'loving father' (Christian Slater). First time director Romanowsky (working from Elliott's book) doesn't find an adequate way of tying the plot pieces together in a meaningful fashion - the Slater narrative seems like an afterthought (that's never really resolved), the relationship between Franco and Amber Heard's damaged journalist amounts to nothing - and the Franco character turns out to be an actual fraud (and a junkie ... and a womanizer ... and an S&M fetishist). With little going right it's nice to see Harris show up and provide some actual emotional power ... as opposed to the self-pitying tone that prevails throughout.
