“Reading made Don Quixote a gentlemen. Believing what he read made him mad.”
– George Bernard Shaw.
Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood are in search of treasure buried in the Californian suburban wilderness. What the audience finds is a well acted little movie that is a treasure indeed - and you don’t have to dig under your Costco to get it just walk inside to the DVD department.
Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) is a hard-working sixteen-year-old who does double shifts at her McDonalds job. She’s convinced at the various social services departments that she’s being taken care of by her father, mother, or whatever story that will keep her independent and out from under their collective thumbs as well as buying a car off of Ebay to get her to work.
Her dad Charlie (Michael Douglas) has just been released from a two year “vacation” at a mental institution. Miranda thinks that dear old dad is going to be okay and ready to help her start paying the bills. However, Charlie has other plans as he’s read a book in the institution library about a priest named Father Torres who in the 1600s hid a treasure in the area.
Charlie, complete with Madman of La Mancha conquistador beard, becomes obsessed with finding the treasure, but the area has been urbanized and looks nothing like the California of old as Charlie and his Sancho Panza daughter seek their golden windmill. Charlie’s calculations lead them to the local Costco, but how can they get the treasure of a lifetime from under the floor of a giant big box store?
King of California is a film for the dreamer in all of us. We wish that life was a bit simpler and that buried treasure lay under our feet just for the taking. However, reality usually gets in our way and things don’t work out for us that way. Our heroes have feet of clay and more than likely have a few cracks in them.
Miranda is one such explorer that finds that her father’s feet are more clay than others in that he ends up in a mental institution and leaves her to fend for herself in the cold, hard world. Both Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood are superb as the estranged parent and daughter who have to find a way to cope in the world and perhaps she can discover that her old man isn’t so crazy after all.
King of California is one of those films that didn’t get a ton of press but is one that is ripe for discovery on home video. It is truly a treasure and the lead performances make it worth following your map down to your local mart to get this one (just please don’t dig up the concrete, it’ll just be on the shelf in plain sight).
King of California is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary with writer/director Mike Cahill, cinematographer Jim Whitaker, producer designer Dan Bishop, and first assistant director Richard L. Fox.
The 10 minute “The Making of King of California” is really an interview with star Michael Douglas and others about working on the project. Next is 4 minutes of outtakes and the 2-minute theatrical trailer. Finally, there are previews for other First Look Studios DVDs.
A fine film that is ripe for discovery on DVD. I thought this was a wonderful little movie that has some great acting and a wonderful turn by Michael Douglas. It’s really an uplifting film in the end and a gem waiting to be discovered on home video.
King of California is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 17th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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