Sean Penn’s scam-artist story Flag Day lurches and lumbers

“Dad, what do you do?” So asks the adult daughter of a problem father in Sean Penn’s irksome, true-story-based Flag Day. Penn stars too, playing the enigmatic John Vogel, later jailed for bank robbery and counterfeiting millions of dollars. His daughter Jennifer is played by Penn’s own, Dylan Penn. “I’m an entrepreneur,” comes the reply. “Working a broad portfolio.” The answer is upbeat, self-aggrandising, just vague enough not to be a total lie. It captures something of the odd figure who careers through this adaptation of Jennifer Vogel’s 2001 memoir Flim-Flam Man.

If the casting of the leads suggests a director not looking far for inspiration, the look of the movie is not much more adventurous. Flashbacks to a 1970s childhood play as generic Americana, a weary parade of faux Super-8. It isn’t the last time the film feels hackneyed. Then again, the clichés might be a masterstroke, perfectly mirroring how her early years came to be recalled by Jennifer, a picture-book fantasy clung to amid chaos to come. The film is partly a study of her father, but also a sad account of what it is to be raised by a scam artist. (As an adult, she found investigative journalism — the spiritual home of the disbelieving.)

Or all that might be excuse-making of the kind John Vogel thrived on. It doesn’t explain the confused lurch of the story, either draggingly slow or so choppy your head hurts. That Penn doesn’t want to make a straight crime thriller is laudable — less clear is what he wants to make instead. The Vogel of the daughter’s book was a man of many parts. (Among them a personal vendetta against Walmart.) Here he remains a mystery, detail deforested to make room for long, actorly scenes of emotional unravelling. Dylan Penn is not quite ready for the role. Her co-star at least has the confidence of his director.

★★☆☆☆

In UK cinemas and on digital platforms from January 28