Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

THE KING
Directed by: James Marsh.
Produced by: Milo Addica & James Wilson.
Written by: Milo Addica & James Marsh.
Director of Photography: Eigil Bryld.
Edited by: Jinx Godfrey.
Music by: Max Avery Lichtenstein.
Released by: THINKFilm.
Country of Origin: USA. 105 min. Rated: R.
With: Gael García Bernal, William Hurt, Pell James, Laura Herring, Paul Dano & Matthew Buckley.

The very first thing Elvis Valderez (Gael García Bernal) wants to do when he gets out of the Navy is to visit his father. So he packs up his few belongings and his rifle, and, smiling from ear to ear, heads to Texas. (Well, actually, sex with a prostitute comes first, seeing his father comes second.)

Elvis has never met his father, a Southern evangelical minister known to his doting congregation as Pastor David Sandow (William Hurt), and his intentions remain unclear. What’s also left unknown is whether or not David knew he had a son with a prostitute, presumably years before he entered the ministry. We do know that after Elvis’ initial contact with his father’s family is rebuked, he settles into the small town’s motel, finds a job, and begins seducing his half-sister.

Though charismatic as ever, Bernal never invites us into Elvis’ head. Playing his role with the same enigmatic villainy that shrouded his character in Pedro Almodóvar’s Bad Education, we never know what lies behind Elvis’ hard looks. The same is true for all of The King’s characters – expressive faces are restrained here. For better or worse, director James Marsh pulls subtle performances from his cast, his camera only showing the blankness of the self-righteous characters.

It’s hard to connect with characters who never reveal what they really think and feel, but that’s part of the game. David’s daughter Malerie (Pell James) is as enigmatic as Elvis. Not even her last line to him, “We’re going to hell,” betrays anything but a conflict with her religion, as it’s casually said without emotion. Milo Addica (Birth and Monster’s Ball) has written a script with characters so unreadable that every action is a surprise, right up to the bizarre final scene. So it’s odd that a film about the differences between American reality and American family values is isolated from the audience. Where American Beauty used all the sympathy it could muster for its flawed characters, The King simply lays bare its milquetoast Texans as they wait for judgment. Zachary Jones
May 19, 2006