King of California

Starring: Michael Douglas, Evan Rachel Wood

Directed by: Mike Cahill

RS: 3of 4 Stars

Nu-Image Films All Movies

With a crazed glint, a bushy beard and a firm desire to fly over his own cuckoo’s next, Michael Douglas gives one of his best performances ever as Charlie, the just-released mental patient at the core of the hilarious and heartfelt King of California. Back home after two years, Charlie becomes the unwanted responsibility of his sixteen-year-old daughter, Miranda (the ever-wonderful Evan Rachel Wood), who’s been getting by selling Big Macs. Now she’s being dragged into Dad’s scheme to find seventeenth-century Spanish treasure he’s convinced is buried under the local Costco. In updating Shakespeare’s The Tempest, writer-director Mike Cahill focuses on the magic worth finding between a father and daughter. That’s why the film sticks with you. It’s a gift.