476: King of California (review)...
Some movies are amazing, others are terrible. Still others are interesting, whereas others make you want to gouge your eyes out for something interesting. Still others are like crack: you know, rationally, you shouldn't like it, but you just can't seem to stop watching.
So it is with indie flick King of California, a thouroughly implausible tale about a father and daughter (a crazy-eyed and beaded Michael Douglas and the ever delightful Evan Rachel Wood) who go treasure-hunting... under a CostCo.
I suppose this is the point where I go about dissecting just why the entire film is implausible and why I, somehow, couldn't stop watching. First of all, the background: Ms. Wood (whose name in this movie is Miranda, I think... or Mandy, or, I think there was an M in it...) is just shy of 17 and working at McDonalds to support herself while her father is in the mental institution. Apparently, her mother left when she was really young, and she has manged to criss-cross everyone from CPS to the State with the age old trick of claiming each person is at the other's house. Barring the implausibility of all these agencies not checking to see that she isn't with the other (though, considering beauracracies, maybe not so far-fetched)... actually, her supporting herself with the fast-food job and getting a used car on EBay aren't so implausible... just look at my sister.
At any rate, her father is bipolar or something... Used to be in a jazz ensemble, judging by his beloved Bass... Wife was a hand-model who left him, 'cause of his crazy eyed gaze, I'm assuming...
Where was I? Oh, yes... Ms. Wood calls her father Charlie, interestingly enough, and narrates much of this film is a strangely wide-eyed stance. At first, I mistook the tone to be that of a comedy, but there's not too much that's funny here. I had a hard time putting my finger upon it as Charlie began his crazy talk of Conquistadors and buried treasure and secret coded maps buried in old books... Dragging his daughter all around the hills of Southern California, digging up carved crosses on rocks and stretching tape all across the sections of CostCo, having her get a job there so they could sneak in at night and jack-hammer their way to the underground river where the treasure was stashed...
And it was somewhere around the point of Ms. Woods going to her swinger boss's barbecue and thwarting lesbian advances with puking that I decided to label it quirky comedy-esque... But then they have to have a sweet--yet so, so wrong--ending, involving father-daughter sacrifice and naked Chinamen landing on the coast...
Well, suffice it to say, despite the ridiculousness--or, obviously, because of it--I kept watching. I would say that the film is very sunny and charming and would make a delightful movie night addition. Douglas and Woods are, of course, very, very good in their roles. Douglas goes all out with the craziness, and Woods, well, that girl just be so damn plucky, you can't resist her. Or this movie. 4 stars.