Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Confirmation Blu-ray Movie Review

Communion.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 7, 2016

While writer-director Bob Nelson cites Vittorio de Sica’s iconic Bicycle Thieves as a prime inspiration for The Confirmation, Nelson is also not shy about, well, confirming that this film might be seen as a kind of prequel to the film that first brought Nelson major recognition as a screenwriter (not to mention an Academy Award nomination), 2013’s Nebraska. As in that Alexander Payne directed opus, there’s a hard drinking father and a somewhat addled son, though in the case of The Confirmation, the age ranges are considerably younger. And while there are no bicycles purloined in The Confirmation, there is an attempt to retrieve some stolen items which, as in the de Sica film, allow its already troubled adult hero the ability to make a living. The Confirmation sees some fairly roiling family dysfunctions through the prism of the perspective of a sweet little boy named Anthony (Jaeden Lieberher), who is initially shown at a Catholic church with his mother Bonnie (Maria Bello). Bonnie is obviously trying to instill some religious fervor into the little boy, and Nelson frames this sequence with the kind of wide eyed wonder with which the very young tend to respond to things like religious iconography. That said, it’s obvious once Anthony (at his mother’s urging) gets into the confessional booth that he’s incredibly innocent, in both a general and an ethical sense. The put upon priest (a funny Stephen Tobolowsky) keeps urging the kid to confess his sins, except—Anthony doesn’t really have any. He’s obviously incredibly precocious, and he seems to have at least a general understanding of what he’s doing in church, but as for actual, honest to goodness (and/or badness) sinning?—well, there simply isn’t any “there” there. That’s all about to change, of course, though Nelson, helming a feature film for the first time, seems to want to deal with the “sullying” of Anthony in a gritty, dramatic fashion (despite a marketing campaign which at least suggested a comedy, or minimally a dramedy), when a perhaps more whimsical approach may have ironically offered more emotional dividends.

The “tourguide” of Anthony’s march through dangerous behavioral waters turns out be an unlikely suspect (or maybe a very likely suspect once his own peccadilloes are detailed), namely Anthony’s alcoholic father Walt (Clive Owen). It turns out Walt and Bonnie have divorced, and Bonnie has moved on to a much more responsible and “upright” man. Walt still has visitation, though, and pulls up to the church to pick up Anthony for the weekend while Bonnie and her new husband Kyle (Matthew Modine) can head off to a church sponsored “marriage retreat”. However, it’s obvious in some quick interchanges between Bonnie and Walt that Bonnie has had it with Walt’s drinking, and that he is being given one last chance to prove he can parent effectively.

Bonnie warns Walt about taking even one drink while he’s in charge of Anthony, and in typical recovering addict fashion Walt insists he doesn’t have a drinking problem, or at least “not that much” of one. It’s therefore not much of a surprise that his first stop after plopping Anthony down in his dilapidated truck is at a neighborhood bar. His already suspect fathering skills get another dent when he tells Anthony to just wait in the truck for him while Walt supposedly explores “work offers”. Yeah, right. Except—Nelson kind of hedges his bets, suggesting (once Anthony gets tired of waiting and confronts his dad inside the establishment), that maybe Walt is foraging for employment, albeit in an unlikely location.

That kind of ambiguity actually informs the film to a great degree in at least a couple of ways, and it’s to Nelson’s credit that he doesn’t try to portray any of these characters or the situations in which they find themselves in a black or white, “good versus evil” sort of way. Walt is attempting to take two steps forward, even if circumstances keep forcing him to take a step backward on a pretty regular basis. He finds out almost immediately after he takes charge of Anthony that his housing situation has crumbled, but he also soon has at least the opportunity for gainful employment. However, that bright spot is threatened when he realizes he’s been robbed of some equipment he needs in order to work. Through it all, Anthony’s wide eyed wonder never really diminishes, though he’s increasingly aware that his father is an extremely troubled, if perhaps essentially virtuous, man.

The quest to retrieve these stolen items informs much of the central section of The Confirmation, and it’s here that Anthony learns that sometimes at least a couple of the Ten Commandments need to be “bent” just a little bit, that is if true justice is to be achieved. This part of the film has what is arguably its only real “comedic” element, courtesy of a quasi-cameo by Patton Oswalt as one of the folks Walt turns to in order to try to find his missing equipment. This brief foray into a slightly broader territory actually only tends to point up how the rest of the film’s kind of turgid, perhaps too obvious attempts to tug at the veritable heartstrings doesn’t end up connecting as forcefully as it might have.

While tonally the film is a bit of a crazy quilt, the performances are routinely excellent. Owen assumes a shambling gait and unkempt appearance and delivers a lived in performance that is indeed kind of like Bruce Dern’s great work in Nebraska, minus a few decades of hard living. But the real anchor of this film is the rather remarkable Lieberher, who manages to instill Anthony with both the requisite innocence as well as a certain knowingness, especially as the story proceeds. The interactions between father and son in this film are the real allure, making some of the patently soap operatic machinations around them seem almost superfluous at times. The Confirmation does confirm Nelson as a major writing talent while also proving he has a fine rapport with performers.

The Confirmation Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Confirmation is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists no camera for this feature, and while I'm loathe to state anything definitively, especially in this day and age of "digital grain", this has a traditionally filmic appearance, though I can't say whether that was achieved "naturally" or by some high tech manipulation (if anyone can point me to a definitive source, I'm happy to update the review). While a lot of this offering takes place in drab and dingy (and often quite dimly lit) environments, detail levels are generally excellent and shadow detail often quite commendable (see screenshots 7 and 9). While a bit on the dingy side at times, the palette looks natural and there's very little if any overt color grading going on, something that also tends to redound to the benefit of detail levels. Contrast is just occasionally anemic at times, especially in some indoor environments (see screenshot 11), but overall things look excellent throughout this presentation, with no compression artifacts of any note and a nicely stable image.

The Confirmation Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Confirmation's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track may not have a ton of opportunities to really strut its stuff, but there's consistent immersion as Walt and Anthony tool about the city, often outside in semi-urban (like, smallish town) environments, where both hubbub and natural sounds are combined to create a very lifelike atmosphere. A lot of this film plays out in very quiet dialogue scenes between father and son, though, and those obviously have little surround activity, but feature excellent fidelity. Jeff Cardoni's enjoyably rootsy score spills through the surround channels quite winningly and capably supports several key scenes.

The Confirmation Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Father Son Story: Inside the Characters of The Confirmation (1080p; 10:48) contains good interviews with Nelson, Owen and Lieberher.


• The Performances of The Confirmation (1080p; 8:11) easily could have been folded into the other featurette, but contains more decent interview material.

The Confirmation Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A large supporting cast which includes reliables like Robert Forster and Maria Bello certainly help up the performance ante, but The Confirmation is for all intents and purposes a so-called "two hander", and in this case the hands are commendably attached to Clive Owens and Jaeden Lieberher, both of whom are excellent. The film has both narrative and (especially) tonal hurdles, but for fans of the cast, there's probably more than enough here to warrant checking out. Technical merits are strong, and The Confirmation comes Recommended.