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Cast and Credits
Charlie: Michael Douglas
Miranda: Evan Rachel Wood
Pepper: Willis Burks II
Joseph: Greg Davis Jr.
Sheriff: Gerald Emerick

First Look Pictures presents a film written and directed by Michael Cahill.

Running time: 93 minutes.

First time writer-director Michael Cahill does a really good job with a film that has a good aura around it. All you have to do to get an essence of it is take a look at the poster. It says it all. The bright colours, the funky fonts and Michael Douglas’s fresh-off-the-bed hairdo and passionate smile, all just scream WATCH ME!!

Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) is a 16-year old who lives the life of a 24-year old. After being abandoned by her mother, Miranda was given the biggest blow in her life when her father was transferred to a mental institution. From that point on, she was left to live alone and take care of herself. Working at McDonalds to pay the bills and having to quit school to sustain herself, Miranda’s relatively peaceful life is suddenly disrupted all over again when her dad is released from the asylum.

On returning, Charlie (Michael Douglas) doesn’t even bother settling down before he begins with an elaborate scheme to find hidden Spanish gold based on a lot of reading that he had done while he was institutionalised. Miranda doesn’t really like this, but she plays along with the idea, sometimes venting her frustration, but mostly being supportive.

What this movie brings to us is a warm father-daughter relationship amidst the chaos that clouds Charlie’s mind and the rationality that clouds Miranda’s. We keep shifting between which of the two is more correct and at most times, there is no conclusive answer. Although our hearts go out to Miranda for being stuck in a situation that she can’t run away from, we also enjoy the eccentricities that Charlie brings to the film and are often left craving for more, only to be jolted into guilt every time Miranda appears on screen again.

To be honest, I didn’t expect that Michael Douglas would’ve pulled this role off. I’m used to the suited snobs that he usually plays in his films and watching him with a nest-like beard and the demented glassy greenish-blue eyes was a welcome relief. Evan Rachel Woods was charming in a role that roots itself as the audience. Charming is an understatement, actually. She was brilliant.

After a long series of funny montages, with some really nice music, I might add, Charlie and Miranda finally find the location where the gold is buried. Six feet below the local Costco… how convenient. Because they have everything they need in there to dig underground and go for the treasure. So what if it’s buried under a phosphorous underground river that stinks like sewage? Even at this point in the story, neither Miranda, nor we are sure what lies beneath.

And that’s what this movie banks on. The fact that despite giving a flying finger about what kind of behaviour he’s supposed to conform to, Charlie does care about his daughter. And that this whole plan was only so he could win her respect. A touching cause, indeed.

There are a lot of hidden metaphors in this film that suggest what this story is really about and regardless of whether you spot them or not, King of California is definitely one movie you shouldn’t miss.