Another showy but unflattering role for Sean Penn, who plays Samuel Bicke, based on the man who tried to hijack a plane in 1974 in an ill-fated attempt to crash it into the White House. Perhaps the Achilles heel of Bicke – the man’s actual name was spelled Byck – was his belief that it was everyone else in the world who was insane. A failed salesman, he rails here against injustices great (racial intolerance, leading him to try to join the Black Panthers) and small (his boss’ request that he shave his mustache is considered no less of an offense). The unfairness of life begins to weigh down on Bicke, and as the few sympathetic ears around him – mainly his ex-wife (Naomi Watts) and mechanic friend (Don Cheadle) – turn away in exasperation, he sets out to make a tragic gesture that will force the whole world to listen. Penn, whose face scrunches as if life itself smells, stays committed to Bicke’s madness to the movie’s brutal end.
