«Flag Day», a journey into adulthood

Cinema Wednesdays - Ivan Garcia

Sean Penn invites us to explore an existence in the United States of the 80s and 90s. In Flag Day, In her latest feature film, a young woman retraces the memories that link her to her father, an individual with a dark past, while following her own path. A film that invites us to emancipate ourselves from childhood and move forward, despite disillusionment.

Going to the movies sometimes means taking a chance, like choosing a film without really knowing what it’s about. Sometimes you’re disappointed; other times, you’re surprised. Especially when the object of your curiosity is labeled a «thriller»: reading that, you figure that bursts of gunfire and bloodshed aren’t far off. Fortunately, with Flag Day,we avoided those awkward moments and were able to enjoy a screening of rare finesse.

The End of Idealization

Flag Day is the story of Jennifer Vogel (Dylan Penn), a young woman who, within the first few minutes of the film, learns from an investigator that her «nice» dad, John Vogel (Sean Penn), was actually a counterfeiter (is he alive? is he dead? Suspense). From there, the heroine recalls moments spent with her father, from her childhood through her turbulent adolescence to adulthood: her parents’ separation, visits from shady thugs to their home, prison…

What stands out in this film is the way the father-daughter relationship is explored. As the film unfolds, we see how Jennifer’s admiration for her father—the kind a little girl might feel—symbolized by the way they spend an afternoon in the cornfields, gives way to a more mundane view of John. From the «Prince Charming» he embodied when she was a child, her father becomes just another guy.

In fact, the entire film is built around this reversal of the relationship between father and daughter. During the first half of the feature film, it is the child who needs her father, who seeks his attention (sometimes much to the chagrin of her mother, who is drowning in alcoholism). Whereas in the second half, the emancipated woman—now a journalist—never calls her father back, despite the flood of messages he leaves on her voicemail; she no longer wants to spend as much time with him.

The Dark Side of the American Dream

One might think Jennifer is being quite cruel to John. What did he do to make her behave this way toward her father, whom she once adored? We know relatively little about this: one scene, when Jennifer is a child, shows her father talking with bearded men who, after a few words, leave him with a bleeding hand. John explains that he owes a lot of money to certain people, doesn’t like manual labor, and tries every trick in the book to scrape together some cash—even robbing a bank, if he has to! Furthermore, he quickly breaks up with Patty, the mother of his children, leaving Jennifer and her brother with her—without any money—to take care of them. Despite his apparent flaws, John is often portrayed as a great adventurer, someone who lives life to the fullest…

In the United States, the Flag Day is Independence Day, namely July 4. By a curious coincidence, that day is also John’s birthday. We can therefore view this coincidence as the flip side of the American Dream—or even its dark side. If the idea behind this belief is that anyone, through hard work, determination, and motivation, can succeed, then Jennifer’s father represents those tens of thousands of people who, despite their perseverance, are left behind by prosperity because they are driven by unrealistic ambitions or overly high expectations. John is hardworking and resourceful, but he uses his abilities to circumvent the law—actions for which he ultimately pays dearly. At the same time, by the crook’s own admission, he does what he does not out of selfish interest, but for his children—for his daughter Jennifer in particular. The character is complex and compels our attention.

Through a series of flashbacks, Jennifer pieces together her life story and recalls how, by facing life’s trials—such as her parents’ separation, an attempted rape by her stepfather, her drug addiction, and other challenges, she grew up and came to realize that her father wasn’t necessarily the person she had idealized. A movie experience that concludes with a beautiful lesson in maturity.

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Photo credits: © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc.