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King, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Milo Addica
James Marsh
Directed by: James Marsh
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 19, 2006
DVD: October 10, 2006
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / UK
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Gael García Bernal, William Hurt, Pell James, Paul Dano, and Laura Harring
Elvis Valderez (Bernal) is a twenty-one year old dreamer who has just been honorably discharged from the US Navy. With his duffle bag and rifle, he travels back to his hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, where he intends to seek out his father -- a man he has only heard about from his Mexican mother, who has since passed away. (ThinkFilm)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Wisconsin Death Trip
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
The King's perception of religion is hardly friendly, but it's only one aspect of a terrific drama, one that ultimately admits that people can be as much of a terrifying mystery as their creator.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
William Hurt can be so subterranean we don't know where he's tunneling. Here he seems to be one thing while becoming its opposite.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
May strain credulity, but it still leaves a memorable mark.
Read Full Review >Empire Damon Wise
A compelling, intelligent and provocative sins-of-the-father story with a terrific ensemble cast, and a standout Mr. Ripley turn by the ever-versatile Gael García Bernal.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
It's as good as anything that Hurt has ever done -- a study in explosive understatement.
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The first-time director, James Marsh, and his co-writer Milo Addica (who wrote "Monster's Ball"), sustain a black-comic tone, and the performances, as far they go, are quietly chilling.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Surely among the darkest-themed movies ever made.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Along with its allegorical elements, The King is also impressively specific in naturalistic detail.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Behind the sad and vulnerable eyes of Bernal's damaged Elvis is both a fierce rage and a desperate need for his father's recognition, but he's more enigma than person. Hurt is more nuanced as the sincerely spiritual man faced with a past that threatens his family and his future.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Dark, disturbing and audaciously original in a way only indies are given license to be anymore, the film never telegraphs where it's heading. But you don't need a pathfinder to sense the general direction is toward hell.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Has William Hurt ever been this perfectly cast? He uses his groggy self-importance to make the pastor the victim of evil and the very fount of it.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
A dark and deeply unsettling movie with its roots in classical tragedy.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
The film survives on a thick diet of genuine acting moments...Probably no other actor (Hurt) standing today could've brought this much juice to such a potentially simplistic character.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
Beautifully shot and well acted, the film might well cause controversy among fundamentalist believers as a provocative allegory challenging the power of faith.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
The King feels like a morality play without any morals.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The King simply unsettles and bothers us -- and it finally misses both the true terror and the twisted redemption it needs for its wicked song, a would-be "Heartbreak Hotel" of horror, to really chill our spines.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Were there more meat on the bones of this fable about hypocrisy and spiritual hollowness, Marsh's pacing might seem deliberate rather then merely slow.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
By all accounts, Marsh has absorbed classic crazy-killer thrillers like "Psycho," "The Night of the Hunter" and "Badlands," but The King isn't likely to join such esteemed company.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Just about the only way to make sense of the film is to view its Christian family the way that the director, James Marsh, does -- with a contempt masquerading as social criticism. William Hurt, for one, deserves better.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
A darkly disturbing melodrama anchored by some powerful performances.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
In James Marsh's The King, the usually wonderful Gael Garcia Bernal is all wrong for the role of Elvis Valderez.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Brian Clark
The most frustrating films are the ones that reach desperately for something great, but fall just short of capturing it. In his dark and twisted narrative debut, The King, British director James Marsh's reach extends so far we can hear his muscles strain, yet what he's reaching for is never quite clear.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Marsh and cowriter Milo Addica (Monster's Ball) strive for gothic tragedy as they unbuckle the Bible Belt, but despite some credible performances (Hurt is especially interesting) the effort feels willful.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Director and co-writer James Marsh clearly thinks he has made a grim and telling satire about fundamentalist hypocrisy. But he and co-writer Milo Addica display such contempt for their characters and religious conviction in general, they reduce everything to one-note banality.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
The story of a veritable devil who comes to test and destroy a family of faith, The King is a noxious film morally and an aggravating one dramatically.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
A lurid, overheated Southern Gothic that wallows in its own unpleasantness.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
There is no tragedy without character, yet the way The King drapes heavy situations around its feebly imagined personalities suggests a tire thrown around the neck of a poodle.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a6:
In the tradition of "The Rapture"(Michael Tolkin), "The King" is a provocative, albeit highly implausible film that challenges traditional Christian tenets; not by blaspheming them, but by pushing the doctrine's spirit to its outermost limits of rationality. This overly schematic indie, reminiscent of "Last House on the Left"(Wes Craven), and especially Terrence Malick's "Badlands"(throw in "A.I." in there, too), highlights the Christian belief that all your past transgressions(pick a sin, any sin: murder, adultery, cheating on your SATs, etc.) are forgiven if the sinner opens his/her heart to Jesus Christ. With savage cunning and perversity, "The King" will make you wonder if this all-inclusive club should rethink its bylaws. Unless I read this film wrong, and a crucial plot point was meant to be straight-faced satire, "The King" loses its credibility when neither husband nor wife acknowledges the coincidence that transforms their family unit. If the filmmaker jammed our internal bull**** detectors with some ingenuous detail to make the Sandows' act of charity appear organic to the story(rather than the contrivance that it is), "The King" would've inspired the congregation of cineastes to shout, "Hallelujah, praise James Marsh!" from the pews to the rafters and beyond.
Armond A. gave it an8:
This film makes a great deal of sense as a portrait of a Psychopathic Personality (or any of the official titles that such people have been given in the Psychiatric classification schemes). The authors and makers of the movie have constructed a very fine example of the psychopath, using their artistic and very intuitive sense of what kinds of traits and behavior patterns seemed to "hang together". Furthermore they have even shown how a lost soul with a very poor conscience and little control over strong impulses can cause terrible damage under the right (or wrong) circumstances. The mistake that the film-makers make comes from this understandable error, which considers only the foul monsters of Night of the Hunter, The Stepfather, and varioius "deranged" serial killers. Had the writers understood the subtle deficiencies of the psychopathic personality, they might have been able to connect the outcome with the beginning and middle of the story. Of course, if anyone is ill-equipped to realize what he's got on his hands it would be a religious man who tends to see things, and people, as either "good or "bad". Our young sailor was more of a swiss cheese than a bar of either gold or sulfur. I'm giving this movie an 8--lots of good elements, but a story that leads to headscratching.
Billy S. gave it an8:
When a movie comes to town without any fanfare, no t.v. spots, not even an ad in the Friday paper, go see it! 9 out of 10 times it will be far better than that weeks hollywood blockbuster playing on every other screen in the city. Case in point- The King. A little film with a couple of great actors who didn't get 10 million dollars each but cared enough to want to tell a interesting, complex story and trusted the director to tell it his way. Gael Garcia Bernal has made an incridible string of movies since Amores Perres and I can't wait for The Science of Sleep when he teams with Michel Gundry and William Hurt, as always, makes any movie worth seeing. As for the ending, I LOVED IT!! The long tracking shot leading up to it was pure Altman and I thought the music was spot on. I'd rather go to a movie that I'm going to think about long after it's over than go see a Lady in the Water where it's more like getting out of jail when it's over anyday.
Mike H. gave it a7:
Very compelling until ridiculous ending, made more so by the music, the tone of which was completely wrong.
Drew gave it a6:
Until it lost credibility about 2/3 of the way through, this movie really had me hooked. Bernal was completely believable, and the cast worked well around him, especially young Pell james as the daughter. When the big plot turn happened, though, you had to start suspending disbelief a bit too much for it to really be affecting cinema. It showed a lot of potential, though. if it could have been scripted a bit more realistically at the end, it would have been chilling. It ended up just being weird, but was worth a view for Bernal's and James' performances.
Jim G. gave it a4:
Some good actors can't overcome unsatisfactory screenplay, poorly edited. Gael is a pleasure to look at, but the story doesn't hang together.
