PLOT: An abandoned son, now an adult, pays a visit to his father and his father's family -- and a second rejection alters the young man's plans.
There's something so sunny and hopeful about the beginning of The King that you can easily predict bad things are coming. Smells like Greek tragedy.
Gael Garcia Bernal stars in The King as Elvis Valderez, a sweet looking young man who has just finished a stint in the Navy. Elvis seems to have a very big purpose when he travels to Corpus Christi, Tex., and indeed he does: He's gone to locate the father he never knew. And he finds him.
Pastor David Sandow (William Hurt) is a popular preacher in Corpus Christi, with his own flock and church and a perfect little American family. He has a beautiful wife (Laura Harring), a 16-year-old daughter, Malerie (Pell James), and a son (Paul Dano) graduating from high school.
What Pastor Sandow really doesn't want is this kid Elvis in his life. His new family doesn't know about his affair long ago with a Mexican woman. Sandow rejects Elvis and tells his other son and daughter to have nothing to do with Elvis. Too late.
Elvis has already found an entree into the lives of Sandow and his family. He is romantically involved with Malerie, who has no idea that Elvis, that handsome stranger, is a blood relative.
When her protective brother -- an advocate for the teaching of Intelligent Design as well as evolution in school -- tells Elvis to leave Malerie alone, the story quickly spirals into fabulously dark tragedy.
James Marsh has a background in documentary filmmaking, which may or may not have something to do with a certain chilly precision he brings to this picture. He likes to go right up his character's noses with his camera; the result is an almost intimate knowledge of their every pore and freckle. You know just how everyone smells.
The King is a film about redemption in its truest sense. Hurt and his wan, colourless, boneless family (the casting of this film is really interesting) are like emotional zombies in some fashion; Bernal, whatever his character's motives, is the only one who seems fully alive, lit from within.
The movie has little hints and murmurs about the worst of American life -- the blighted Texas landscape, a pizza-eating dog, the motel where Elvis lives, the intense belief in cause and effect -- but the story doesn't appear to be too concerned with the fundamentalist Christianity of Sandow's family. It's more that the religion is as self-congratulatory and as insular as everything else in their lives.
The King was written by Milo Addica, who also wrote Monster's Ball and Birth. The soundtrack is brilliant, the cinematography strange and wonderful and the performances are creepy good. If you're looking for something intense and different at the movies, this is it.
BOTTOM LINE: Chilling little film, this. Don't bring the kids.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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