There are too many of these men in life, and not enough films that tell their sad tales. That gives Affliction a therapeutic worth.

Overwrought metaphors abound in Paul Schrader's ham-fisted Affliction.

Nick Nolte is a big, shambling, confident male presence in the movies, and it is startling to see his cocksure presence change into fear in Paul Schrader's Affliction.

Affliction hones in on masculinity and the demons that men inherit from one another.