Sean Penn IS intensity. He's often criticized for sometimes going over the top but you can't deny that he brings the heat more often than not. The transition from actor to director seems like the smoothest one since Clint Eastwood. This could've been another Penn starring role if you think about it but it becomes much more self-reflective when he's behind the camera. The duality in the two central characters is great material from the start but we know real art stems from something personal and you can really feel it from the beginning of this.
I've always been a fan of film being an almost therapeutic process. Some, if not most, of the greatest films are entirely rooted in the director or writer's struggles within themselves. That notion becomes clear by the third act in this film. The final confrontation of our two wildly conflicting brothers is handled so personally yet doubles as an effective argument of the state of man vs. nature. Can we blame everything else in the world that we've helped create for our problems? Is it easier to accept the simplicities of life and forget the more overwhelming issues? Penn definitely leans more to the latter but I never felt like he force fed me his opinion. He raises questions to ponder on without losing focus of his central story and characters and that's always something to applaud.
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