There must be times in all our lives when we question our place and relevance in the big wide world.

Fortunately, those thoughts are fleeting, allowing us to get back to the daily irritants such as work and television adverts.

Sean Penn’s Sam Bicke has tried his hardest to accept daily routine, to embrace it and succeed. All Sam really wants from life is his family and a good job.

With ideals as simplistic as this, it’s no wonder that his failure to realise the American dream brings about a dark side in Sam, a side that refuses to accept his lot.

His subsequent spiral out of control, played against the backdrop of the Watergate scandal in post-Vietnam America, is a tense, disturbing tale.

As Salesman Bicke flounders around, attempting to rekindle his broken family and construct a business with bank loans that are not forthcoming, apportioning blame becomes his mantra.

Step forward Dickie Nixon, the ultimate salesman. The leader of the country that believes in Bicke’s dream, the man most at fault for the country's failings, and thus, the ideal target for the venting of Bicke's fury.

His efforts to find meaning, such as an ill-advised effort to join the Black Panthers, draw inevitable comparisons to Taxi Driver. But where Travis Bickle failed to find any purpose, and eventually fluked redemption, Penn's Sam is much more specific – vis a vis, the destruction of those in power that failed to supply the goods they promised.

Yet for all his grandiose posturing, the most disturbing scene involves Sam and the family dog, as Sam questions said pet – "You love me, don’t you?" The dog’s lack of response incites the anger in his owner that perhaps he doesn't have the balls to see through elsewhere in life.

The story is based on very real events that could easily have seen a 9/11 style tragedy over 20 years ago as the real-life Sam Byck attempted to hijack an airliner and fly into the White House.

The shocking nature of what could have been adds gravitas to an already powerful story.

It’s a movie that simply would not work if it were not for the dedicated performances from the cast.

Naomi Watts, as Sam's long-suffering wife is utterly convincing, while Penn's own performance is a long way off his Oscar winning turn in Mystic River, showing a maturity in his acting that was surely worthy of Oscar recognition.

However, a lack of Oscar nods removes any underlying pressure on the movie to live up to expectation. Assassination Of Richard Nixon can be a movie that you discovered. A small-scale production that came in under the radar and blew you away.

Rich Phippen