By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: James Marsh
Starring: Gael García Bernal | Laura Harring | Pell James | William Hurt
Country: united_kingdom, united_states
Year: 2006
Running time: 105
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396688/
Chris says: “In one of his first (good) English-speaking roles, Gael Garcia Bernal is a young man who has just finished a stint in the US Navy. Named Elvis (hence the film’s ironic title), he rolls into Corpus Christi, Texas, and immediately looks up his father, David Sandow (William Hurt). Sandow once had a fling with Elvis’ mother, a Mexican prostitute. Shortly thereafter, he found God and is now pastor of a fundamentalist Christian church. He also a wife, Twyla (Laura Harring) and two teenaged children: Paul (Paul Dano) and Malerie (Pell James). Upon meeting a grown-up Elvis for the first time, Sandow rejects him and forbids him to have any contact with his half-family. However, that doesn’t stop Elvis from pursuing a clandestine affair with Malerie; nor does he reveal to her who he actually is.
“It’s a shame the trailer for this film makes it look like the usual torpid, pretentious, hot-button topic indie trash; on the contrary, it’s an unpredictable, stripped-down, subdued, near-poetic character study. Previously best known for the documentary WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP, director James Marsh is well-adept at sustaining a mood and building intensity but not at the expense of losing the plot or lacking substance. Bernal, Hurt and Dano (very different from his role in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) are all good, but THE KING is most remarkable in its moral ambiguity toward its characters. Sure, you could debate whether each one is “good” or “bad” (and most viewers certainly will), but what matters more here is the possibility of redemption, and how difficult (or easy?) it is to earn. 4 cats”