BEING FLYNN

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. That is the message of Paul Weitz’s mostly well-crafted adaptation of poet Nick Flynn’s memoir. The movie centers on the bizarre-yet-true circumstances of the author’s reconciliation with his estranged, alcoholic father. Both are struggling if gifted writers, and both have substance-abuse issues. The elder Flynn, Jonathan (Robert De Niro), likes his booze, which has prevented him from ever finishing the single manuscript he carries around. Nick, his 20-something son (Paul Dano), hasn’t been writing long enough to be considered a failure. Still, his own addictions put him on the path of becoming his father. There are some really nice touches, including Weitz’s technique of dueling narrators. The characters of Nick and Jonathan attempt to frame the story by speaking in alternating voice-overs. It’s a clever gimmick, but it’s also a surprisingly apt way of underscoring their competitiveness and their intertwined fates.

THE FLOWERS OF WAR

As the movie opens, Japanese soldiers have just overtaken Nanking, China, and schoolgirls attempting to return to their convent duck trigger-happy enemies. American mortician John Miller, who turns out to be an alcoholic cad, is also headed toward the cathedral to bury a recently deceased priest. The church is a designated safe zone, so a group of prostitutes from the nearby red-light district also seeks the cathedral’s refuge. But when the motley crew ends up under the watchful eye of Japanese soldiers purporting to protect them, the group struggles to escape the city. All the arresting images in the world can’t overcome the story, which seems to exist in a far-fetched reality where grown women giggle and joke while bombs explode nearby, a money-hungry pig transforms himself instantaneously into a selfless father figure and people leave a safe haven under implausible circumstances. In these cases, it’s simpler to shake one’s head in disbelief than hang it in sorrow.

OUT THIS WEEK

American Reunion; Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series; Remains; Black Limousine; Fightville; Dark Nemesis; Muddy Waters & The Rolling Stones Live at the Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago 1981; The Glades: Season 2; Robert Plant & The Band of Joy: Live from the Artists Den; iCarly: The Complete 4th Season; My House Is Full of Mirrors.