Review of This Must Be the Place (2011) by Adrian Z — 24 Jul 2014

This Must Be The Place has a weak narrative thrust, but it's an excellent example of the sort of range Sean Penn is capable of. Here, Penn plays a retired rocker who, drawn back to America by his estranged father's death, embarks on a cross country journey to find a Nazi war criminal his father obsessed about, meeting a wide variety of generally strange people along the way.

Penn's Pierrot-like characterization is at times extremely funny, often poignant, always spellbinding. However, director Paolo Sorrentino (who also co-wrote the screenplay), lends the film such a quirky-cum-morose-for-it's-own-sake tone, it's hard to understand where the story is going some of the time, or why some plot decisions have been made.