“The King of California” garnered acclaim in script form, and you can see how it might be a good read: quirky characters, a couple of vivid roles for actors, and a magical ending.
But a script is not a movie, and “King” is not a success. What might have been charming on the page looks forced on screen, and in the hands of a first-time director the whimsy falls flat.
The film does offer a meaty role to a pointy-bearded Michael Douglas, who looks like a Spanish conquistador, or possibly a refugee from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” He plays a man recently released from a stay in a psychiatric institution, who returns home to his 16-year-old daughter (Evan Rachel Wood).
She’s learned to take care of herself, so when dad hatches his latest scheme, she figures it will blow over. A funny old geezer with a metal detector. No harm done. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.
He’s convinced that a cache of Spanish gold is buried near the family home, which is sunk into a featureless piece of California development. The gold might be located directly beneath the big Costco, in fact, which will make it difficult — but not impossible — to retrieve.
This quixotic quest takes up the entire movie, although we are also supposed to notice that father and daughter are sorting out their relationship along the way. Few other characters intrude.
Mike Cahill wrote the screenplay, and perhaps in the hands of a savvy director this might have had more snap, and the performances more focus. I really wanted to enjoy Michael Douglas in this role, which is the kind of stretch he hasn’t had at least since “Wonder Boys,” arguably his best work.
But the part is tiresome, and it’s hard to get much nuance into it. Evan Rachel Wood, late of “Across the Universe,” ably employs a deadpan against Douglas’ more florid performance. Even though she narrates the movie, copiously at first, she doesn’t come across with much of a character.
The quirky score, by David Robbins, is a plus; it evokes (I assume intentionally) the music from “Cuckoo’s Nest,” a film Douglas produced. Ultimately, though, this is one of those movies that wants to convince you that if you only “believe,” everything will work out for the best. I didn’t believe it.
Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood star in “The King of California.”
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