First, this film is apparently based on a true story, so it makes no sense to criticize the message. Life is messy. Please do not take my review as an appeal to make all films tidy and redemptive.

That said, not all true stories are worth committing to film and being held up as examples of family commitment and unconditional love. I found the "heart" of this film to be twisted and dark, and the message to be potentially harmful to people with truly abusive and heartbreaking family circumstances.

Woody Harrelson plays an abusive drunk who terrorizes and mercilessly deprives his own children. He also meticulously manipulates his co-dependent wife to enable his dysfunctions and remain cooperative with every sick development, including the sexual molestation of their son by his own grandmother. This is supposed to be "balanced" by the fact that he is a dreamer who is occasionally nice. Heck, he even coughed up some tuition money. Once. After stealing money from the same kid earlier. What a great dad.

As the kids mature and literally escape into independence as adults, the mentally deranged parents follow them all the way to New York City and continue to sabotage their happiness. When a family member attempts to draw boundaries in order to establish some sanity and peace, they all conspire to leverage one another back into the nightmare with guilt trips.

The central character, one of the daughters, actually manages to put together a relatively sane life (one in which she copes with her background by lying to others about it), but is repeatedly told by the father that she is not really happy and craves his brand of freedom and "adventure". "Down is up, left is right," says the sociopath.

The nice, happy part of the movie is when the dad finally dies, making it easier for the remaining family to gloss over and romanticize the brutal treatment they received as the children and wife of a lazy, booze-addled abuser.

I gave it an 8 out of 10 because it is well acted, convincing, and impeccably made. I just find it to be utterly aimless and warped as a work of storytelling, and it eludes me what people find charming or heartwarming about it.