Note to Sean Penn: Robert De Niro wants his schtick back!

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2004)

This really would have been a terrific film if it wasn't for Sean Penn's embarrassing scenery-chewing "acting". He seems desperate to grow up and become Robert De Niro someday; but his worst mistake is that he steals all the cheap schtick that De Niro has unfortunately learned to rely on (and repeat in every recent film) and not the early honest, raw work that De Niro used to do.
Robbins is excellent, Marcia Gay Harden is heartbreaking. But the real scene-stealers here are Laura Linney who blows everyone away with her subtle, yet captivating and surprising evolution in the last scenes and an almost unrecognizable turn by former sitcom queen Jenny O'Hara as a bitter, angry mother.