Symbolism

I just watched this movie, I think it was a solid movie, not great but not disappointing, either. I came on these boards, as I often do after seeing a new movie, to discuss something I found interesting: symbolism of the characters. I flipped through all the threads and couldn't see where anyone brought this up before, so if I missed it, my apologies. I'm wondering though, if no one has mentioned it, is it just too obvious or did I notice something more subtle than I thought it was?

What I'm referring to is how the characters in the movie represent the people in Nick's family. Samantha is his mom, Kenny is Nick (as a child) and Nick is Nick's father. This explains (at least partly) why Nick went off on Samantha; he wanted to know how his mother could stay with his father, and why she didn't do a better job of protecting him from his drunk (and most likely abusive) father. This also makes sense when you look at his earlier behavior towards Kenny; Nick reminds himself of his father, and the underparented Kenny reminds Nick of himself. Since Nick is in such a terrible state of drunken depression, he treats Kenny how his father would have/did treat him.

I think his interactions with the characters is key to how Nick develops through the movie. He sees his mom not just as his mother but as a person in a difficult relationship, and is better able to see that he's not his father and can get on the wagon because of it.

Any thoughts? Again, sorry if this has been talked to death already...