What am I missing? (Spoilers)

He was nice to his brother because due to his brothers accident, he bought the house with his money.

I wasn't happy when he killed all notions of his son excelling at football even with a prospect on the horizon.

He was an a$$hole, did he also have to smack the kettle off the counter before he left.

I feel exactly the same way about the movie. The dialogue was interesting (if not a little overwritten at times, but that can be interesting too occasionally) and the performances fascinating. But the movie indeed was this sort of a stagnant story arc of a completely irredeemable person, a self-righteous *beep* whose only redeeming quality was that "he tried his best" (which was not much) and that he provided food and shelter for his family (the bar is very low). There was no character growth, it was more of a long look into a life of a miserable man who ended up making everyone around him miserable as well.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a horrible movie and I appreciate what they were trying to do here. And the play version is probably amazing. But I think people who enjoy this movie the most are people who can see some redeeming qualities in the main character and even find him charming. I just can't because even his supposed charming qualities are something that I don't really appreciate in real life (the ridiculous over-the-top self-centered stories etc.).

the drama never intensified and it was just sort of a flat movie.

Denzel's character was a complete a**hole. I realized they tried to redeem him and make his actions somewhat just at the end, but it didn't work for me.

To me, he was completely irredeemable.

It also seemed as though he genuinely didn't care, or love, for his son.

And he claimed he loved his wife, yet snuck around and got another woman pregnant.