KING OF CALIFORNIA
US, 2007, 96 minutes, Colour.
Michael Douglas, Evan Rachel Wood, Willis Burks II, Kathleen Wilhoite.
Directed by Mike Cahill.
This is a small-scale and quirky comedy drama on the American dream. While it is about treasure (and is in the vein of National Treasure in suburbia), it is also about madness, a modern-day mini Treasure of the Sierra Madre in terms of obsession. If the star had not been Michael Douglas, it might never have been made or received much prominence. But, star Michael Douglas it does.
He portrays a man coming out of an institution where he has read a lot and discovered a journey and a map from the times of the 17th century California missionaries. He is determined to find their treasure even if it is under the concrete floor of an outlet warehouse. Mad treasure seekers make mad plans, so we follow his dream and his antics. The person who has to accommodate to all of this is his young daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) who has had to look after herself for the two years he was away and now has to nursemaid him.
The film is more of a time-passer than a gripping entertainment, interesting to see an eccentric ageing Douglas and the emerging Wood.
1.The American dream? Sanity and madness? Treasure and dreams? Opportunity?
2.The California landscapes, the city, the homes, the shops, the markets?
3.The opening, the incident at the warehouse, the flashback, going forward to this point?
4.Miranda and her voice-over, her memories of her mother, her mother’s hands and the modelling, leaving, the father and his madness, relying on herself, her life, leaving school, work and the money, buying the car, her age and character?
5.Charlie coming out of the institution, coming home, his home style, projects, the past, his music and his friend, the story of pawning the cello, in the institution, his reading, the book about the travels of the friar, the search for treasure?
6.Miranda as mother, caring for her father, her calling him Charlie, his wanting her to call him Dad, the lifts, her exasperation?
7.Charlie and the maps, his machine for getting directions, the work on the green, finding the doubloon, the police accosting him, his flirting with the policewoman, finding the locations, the bulldozer, finding the pottery, marking the map, the crosses on the stones, the site of the treasure in the market, his plan, his friend with the alarms, the propane gas, the drill, going under the store, the underground river, the police arriving, their being caught, his diving into the water, searching for the treasure, never found? The animation sequences for the journey?
8.Miranda, her complying with her father, the sanity issue, her love, sharing, getting the job and the supermarket, the group barbeque, her father’s suspicions, getting the keys, helping, his tying her up?
9.His friend and the music, the help, the alarm, the bike breakdown, the pursuit by the police, his being caught?
10.Miranda, the ending, on the beach – and seeing the Asian illegals arrive, wanting the American dream?
11.The theme of the name of California, a land of hopes and dreams?
