The strength of "The Confirmation" is the sensitive portrayal of an alcoholic father, as played by Clive Owen. Owen's character Walt has visitation rights with his son, Anthony, and the film traces a wild weekend of "bonding" between father and son.

The film is primarily a drama, but it includes comic moments, especially in the cast of seedy characters. Anthony is the little boy who plays the role of caretaker for his beleaguered dad. There is a fine supporting cast with Maria Bello, Matthew Modine, and Robert Forster. But the focal point is that of Owen's character and his youngster, played effectively by Jaeden Lieberher.

SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS: The one curious choice on the part of the filmmakers was to close the film with the theft of the father's tools from a pawn shop. While the film was attempting to pay homage to Vittorio De Sica's famous film "Bicycle Thieves" from 1948, the final sequence didn't work. Unfortunately, the theft of the tools was teaching a horrible lesson to the young boys, and it made no sense in the logic of the film. Surely the owners of the pawn shop would have had Owen's character and the boys prosecuted.

"The Confirmation" is set in Kent, Washington. There was good footage of the community, which helped to draw the viewer into the film. One of the subtleties of the film was to convey the hardscrabble life of Americans in the twenty-first century. In watching this film, one was almost reminded of America in the Great Depression of the 1930s.