Patton Oswalt plays the role of an estranged father in an off-putting would-be comedy wherein he poses online as a young woman to talk to his son.

It has come to light that writer-director-star James Morosini’s cringe-prompting and off-putting non-comedy “I Love My Dad” is centered on his personal life experiences with his own father. We can only hope that Morosini’s real-life dad didn’t resort to the sociopathic levels of savagery and manipulation that have been displayed by the fictional character in the movie. Frequently creative but mostly displeasing and stompingly unfunny, it is a kind of story that suggests one to take huge leaps of faith at every turn; and then takes the plot into a redemptive arc that is neither reasonable nor earned.

It is through the opening montage of phone messages that we grasp that Patton Oswalt’s Chuck has been a truant father who was absent from most of the important events in his son, Franklin’s life. Fast forward to the current times, Franklin (played by Morosini) has just come out of a rehabilitation facility, where he landed up after his failed suicide attempt. He wants to do nothing with his alienated father. Therefore, he blocks him on social media.

Followed by this, Chuck sobs about getting blocked by his son in front of his friend and co-worker Jimmy (played by Lil Rey Howery, misspent in a nothing role). Jimmy tells Chuck about the time when he once created a fake identity in order to track his ex-girlfriend. Chuck decides to take inspiration from the same.

As he meets a pleasant young waitress named Becca (played by Claudia Sulewski) at his local diner, he makes a fake Facebook account using Becca’s photos. Using that profile, he starts up a conversation with his vulnerable and credulous son. As their virtual relationship eventually takes the form of long texting sessions, poor Franklin starts to fall in love with Becca.

The interesting question that arises here is ‘so what does Chuck do?’ One might think of two alternatives in such a situation: it’s either to come clean or to ghost the other person. But Chuck doesn’t think the either way. He continues the ploy, without caring that his son had recently tried to commit suicide and is obviously in a fragile state. It’s apparent that the whole situation can’t end without Franklin feeling hurt and humiliated.

Morosini uses the increasingly popular technique to represent the texting conversations amongst the characters wherein they are placed in the same room, interacting with one another.

Sometimes as Franklin is busy in intimate conversations with Becca, we see him with the Becca played by Claudia Sulewski, who comes across as a fulsome, fanciful fairy-tale princess with no real dimensions. On the contrary, there are other occasions , where we see Franklin with his dad, including a virtual make-out session. Maybe, the writer-director expects the audience to laugh at the visuals of Patton Oswalt aka Chuck kissing Franklin aka James Morosini.

‘I Love My Dad’ takes a completely different turn when Chuck decides to drive Franklin to meet the real Becca in person. Finally, the father and son get a chance to bond, and that they do. However, it’s all based on Chuck’s continuing and dreadful deception of his son. Poor Franklin must get a restraining order and make a vow to never talk to his dad again.