The King
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Movie Reviews of The King
Movie Review: This Should Stick with You
Summary: 4 Stars
Half way through this film I wasn't convinced. It seemed to be a pretentious attempt at poking fun at born-agains (and I'm not religious by any means). But by the end I was left unsettled and the film lingered on for days.
The twists are great and the the suspense builds up nicely. The acting is great all around (though Bernal should stick to Spanish-language films as his accent came out at parts and his mannerisms are very "Mexico City-ish").
If you are looking for something disturbing and thought-provoking, then this is worth a view.
Movie Review: Strange, but good movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes Yes Yes I know... I DO LOVE these "off beat" movies!!
This is a OK movie, and I have watched it a few times but with
William Hurt and Gael Garcia Bernal I had too!!!
I own it and it's got a place on my shelf... I think when I
saw "Down in the Valley" I saw the trailor and was more than wondering about it... I am glad I did.
Movie Review: Great movie but a bit disturbing
Summary: 4 Stars
I love the movie. but the thing that through me off is when I found out gael and the girl are related. lol but the movie is amazing and shocking and the same time!! I say go watch it!!Movie Review: The King
Summary: 4 Stars
movie is good bit i didn't expect it to be a killer movie but as the whole movie goes it was a good movieMovie Review: "You're not as talented as the Lord, and he's listening."
Summary: 3 Stars
This dark and unsettling allegory, which mixes very bad behavior with Christian evangelism, features two very fine performances from its leads Gael GarcÍa Bernal and William Hurt, but this tale of the prodigal son returning to his roots never really picks up steam beyond it's initial exposition. Consequently, we have a film that features a potentially great story, but for the most part, is too stultifyingly slow-paced to really make that much of an impact.
We first meet Elvis (Bernal), a twenty-something drifter, who has just been released from the navy. He arrives in Corpus Christi, Texas, hopefully seeking to reconnect with his estranged father (Hurt) who unknowingly fathered him. It turns out that his father is now an evangelical pastor with a nice family and predictably, and although he's civil to Elvis, he wants nothing to do with his illegitimate son.
Dejected, Elvis stays on in the City, rooming in a run-down, crummy hotel and obtaining employment as a pizza delivery boy. But some unstoppable, Machiavellian force begins to drive the young man and he begins to exact revenge on the pastor, starting by seducing his daughter a beautiful 16-year-old (Pell James) in all her Catholic innocent glory. Keep in mind he is seducing his half-sister.
But this seduction is nothing compared to Elvis has in store for the holy man's other geek son Paul (Paul Dano), a gawky teenage Christian rock singer and campaigner for intelligent design. Is Elvis just a mild-mannered, untroubled sociopath who is picking on an innocent family? Or is there perhaps more substance behind his motivations?
Director James Marsh has some good ideas here, embedding his main protagonist with a Ripley-like amoral sensibility, yet what he's eventually trying to say is never quite clear. Perhaps he's juxtaposed the fine line existing between redemption and damnation and he certainly throws in some interesting ideas, strong characterizations, and a couple of sensational twists.
However, he obscures these aspects with muddled and too slowly paced directing and a surprisingly vapid central character - a bit of a Johnny one note - that even the talented García Bernal cannot overcome. The story is indeed rich and troubling - and somewhat provocative - but the director's choices about what scenes to reveal and what to leave ambiguous feel a bit arbitrary to say the least, and the ending especially feels a bit flat and perfunctory and not as profound as it should have been.
Still, Hurt and Bernal make this unfocused film watchable. Hurt's faith has a rugged intensity, and it's a good bet he's more arrogant than your own pastor. Yet the actor also stays away from portraying him as the devilish fire-and-brimstone preacher, the stereotype that the character could have so easily fallen into.
Bernal in his quiet way is as charming and as sensual as ever - his looks lend themselves well to this kind of role. But the character of Elvis just lacks the emotional gravitas and weight that say the terrific Ed Norton bought to his disconsolate transient cowboy in Down in the Valley, a much better film that The King bears a remarkable similarity to. Mike Leonard October 06.