Eight-year-old Anthony (Jaeden Martell) is a good kid. So good, in fact, he struggles to offer up any sins to the priest in his confession before heading for a rare weekend with his father.
When mom Bonnie (Maria Bello) hands Anthony over to divorced father Walt (Clive Owen), she hectors Walt about not drinking and making sure Anthony stays out of trouble. She and new husband Kyle (Matthew Modine) are off to a Catholic couples retreat for the weekend. Walt protests: don’t worry; he’s got this.
But we have our doubts. Walt’s a down-on-his luck carpenter, but a new job starting Monday could help him scrape by. So he and Anthony try to settle in for a safe, routine weekend: a visit to grandpa Otto (Robert Forster), sandwich at home instead of Anthony’s requested stop at Hamburger Hut, video games.
But then it happens. You know: bad luck. They discover Walt’s toolbox was stolen out of his pickup. Those aren’t just any tools, and Walt is not just any carpenter. He does creative, beautiful, and meticulously rendered work. He’s spent years collecting those hard-to-get, almost one-of-a-kind tools. He couldn’t buy new ones like that even if he had the money. Which he doesn’t. He can’t show for that job on Monday without them.
So Walt, with Anthony in tow, embarks on a quest to find the thieves. First up is a visit to Vaughn (Tim Blake Nelson), said to know guys who might be desperate enough to lift someone’s tools. But Vaughn only knows a guy who knows guys. That’s Blake (Patton Oswalt), a goofy, hopped up dude who leads them down a path of predictable dead ends.
In addition to the quest for tools, the weekend is filled with obstacles (Walt’s aging truck gives up the ghost; they get stopped by a cop), bad times (Walt spends a frightful night confronting demons), and good times (working Anthony’s paper route together). It looks iffy whether Walt can retrieve his tools and complete the weekend sober.
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But, of course, you root for him all the same.
All the name-brand actors give serviceable performances, making The Confirmation an entirely enjoyable way to spend a few hours. A special tip of the hat to Jaeden Martell (credited as Jaeden Lieberher in the 2016 publicity), playing, at about age 12, the stereotypical movie “eight-year-old wiser than his years.” He never overplays his part, whether tasked with looking stumped by unexpected questions, alert in the face of tense confrontations, angry when needed, and defensive of his pop in Walt’s trying moments. Indeed, he and Owen have a winning rapport.
The Confirmation centers us among lower-income neighborhoods where lying (and occasionally stealing) is what one sometimes has to do – usually reluctantly – to get by. It is not overtly religious; Walt knows Catholic tradition but is not committed like ex-wife Bonnie, and Anthony just doesn’t know how he feels about his upcoming Communion and Confirmation. In the key scene, Walt tells Anthony the best path is simply to do what feels right.
What makes The Confirmation worth spending a few hours on? It’s not showy or cleverly written. There’s nothing remarkable in the direction. It’s well acted, in a workmanlike way. But give it this: Director Bob Nelson knows what he’s trying to accomplish and doesn’t stretch to be anything else. It stays grounded and authentic (well, mostly, except for those scenes with loopy Drake), and achieves its aim of being a warm, father-son drama of hoped-for redemption.
One thing you know for sure: In his next confession, Anthony will have plenty to share.