Review of King of California (2007) by K W — 14 Jun 2009

This quirky Sundance comedy is largely carried on lead actors, Michael Douglas, and Evan Rachel Wood's, shoulders. Actors are incessantly critical to a film's success, but with a storyline as offbeat as this, miscast actors or actors who fell short of flawlessly embodying their characters, would have automatically amounted to cinematic doom. Fortunately for "King of California", Douglas and Wood are par excellence, with their absorbing, atypical father-daughter dynamic.

The film failed to engage me, at moments, during the first half, but by the end had wholeheartedly won me over, with its mastered balance of comedic lightheartedness, and raw heart. Would recommend "King of California" for any fans of quirky independents, and films in the vein of "Little Miss Sunshine".