Affliction

A small-town New Hampshire cop (Nick Nolte) investigates a hunting-season death that he suspects was no accident; meanwhile, his personal life spirals out of control, haunted by memories of a childhood terrorized by his drunken father (James Coburn). Writer/director Paul Schrader (adapting a novel by Russell Banks) strikes a tone of savage grimness, but the film is also unsubtle and over-literary; Schrader hits us over the head with every labored metaphor, and a superfluous narration explains the obvious.