As for Penn himself, I'm not very familiar with his body of work, other than Dead Man Walking, in which he was utterly brilliant. (only a really good actor could extract from an audience sympathy for an ignorant multiple rapist/murderer. The scene where Penn's character is tied and readied for lethal injection, and he is shaking like a dog through sheer fear of death, is really something to watch. I used to be in favour of the death penalty before I watched that movie.)
I felt no sympathy for the character. You murder and rape, you deserve to die. I think a rapist murderer deserves to shake like a dog in fear. You reap what you sow. I'm surprised that you would fall for that.
