What I thought was going to be a really lame attempt at a movie with depth, ended up being pretty decent, but far from great. I just won’t call it “lame,” I guess.

Mike Cahill’s 2007  King of California begins with a girl and her scruffy counterpart attempting to break into the back door of a commercial space and lots of sirens going off, so that, of course, means something exciting should be happening, right? Well, perhaps a bit later in the film, but the first 70+ minutes are extremely slow. A lack of good character development and some decently flat acting found me trying to figure out the ending so I knew just how much longer I’d actually have to sit through it. Because, after all, I had homework to do! Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood), a sixteen-year-old has been abandoned by both parents and with some fancy footwork to avoid the State, she has tricked Child Protective Services into not finding out she was actually living alone in the home she grew up in. Her mother had left her, and her father, Charlie (a scruffy Michael Douglas) had been committed to a mental institution for a reason we don’t ever really know. There’s a hint as to why he may be there, but it never comes out and says it. He doesn’t seem particularly challenged, mentally, and perhaps it’s a generalization but his teeth are far too white and straight…it seems that he takes care of his person and stereotypically, someone in a mental ward, might not. So this is one strike against his character!The relationship between Miranda and Charlie is more than strained. After picking him up from the Mental Institution upon his discharge, she finds it hard to live with him; in fact she called it “wonderful” as she reminisced about living in the home alone. They don’t have any money, Charlie isn’t working, and Miranda has had to drop out of high school to work as many hours at McDonald’s as she could just to make ends meet. Her only real possession is her fabulous powder blue 1986 Volvo Wagon, which she saved up for and purchased all on her own, and loved dearly (who wouldn’t love a car like that?). Once Charlie moves back in with her she finds it much more difficult. He has a whimsical and meandering spirit, and instead of an exhaustive job hunt, he is on an exhaustive hunt for an alleged treasure buried beneath their suburban town. He had researched a quest a man named Torres documented from the 1620′s, and they even, while on a search with a metal detector, found a golden Doubloon from the same year of the expedition of Torres. He finally cajoles Miranda into reading the books he had brought with him, and finally realizes how fascinating the idea was, even if it was just an idea. Lo and behold, the journey brings them together, after plotting the trail that Torres and their team followed, and realizing that the supposed treasure was buried beneath a Costco.

This movie begins quite slowly. It was almost exhausting to sit through. But as soon as they hit the Costco it does become more interesting, and even captivating. The characters don’t really give you enough to truly care about them, until their relationship does become more stable through the search for the buried doubloons. Douglas does not paint a crazy-man character, and perhaps he’s not supposed to be. Perhaps that’s for the viewer to decide. Perhaps he’s just not suited for the society he is currently in. He seems to be a much more free spirit, and this is emphasized by their  home: they live in a decrepit old home in the middle of sprawling suburbia, and they could have received a pretty mint if they would have sold their land to the sub dividers, but decided not to because it was his home. Wood’s character is emotionless through much of the film, and doesn’t bring a whole lot to the table other than some light objections to the search. There are a few side-stories that hit dead-ends and don’t add anything to the main plot, and it just doesn’t seem to hit the mark it set out for. I think it’s an interesting enough story, they just didn’t develop it enough. I would much rather see more character development and a lot more setting than just a McDonalds and a Costco. Let’s really capitalize on suburbia!

All in all, it’s not a bad movie if you’re just interested in something light for an evening. If that’s the case than I’ll recommend it. But I will only give it 3.5 stars as I was falling asleep through most of it!