5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
When a free-spirited hustler who boasts he can live on $5 a day -- calls to say he's dying and needs a ride to New Mexico for a dubious cure, his son reluctantly agrees to join him on the cross country odyssey.
Starring: Christopher Walken, Sharon Stone, Alessandro Nivola, Amanda Peet, Peter CoyoteDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Road trips and swindlers are both staples of American pop culture, and they go well together. Mark Twain had Huck Finn pull more than a few scams on his travels along the Mississippi, and for good measure he threw in some traditional con men in the persons of the Duke and the Dauphin. $5 a Day varies the formula by putting a father and son, estranged now but former partners in "short" cons, behind the wheel of an auto traveling Route 66 from Atlantic City to Albequerque. The father says he needs the son's help, because he's dying of a brain tumor, and a clinic in New Mexico has an experimental treatment that might help. The son doesn't believe him, and neither do we, because the father is played by Christopher Walken—and with Walken, you never know. The script by Neal and Tippi Dobrosky took five years to get made, and several directors came and went during that time. The one who stuck was British filmmaker Nigel Cole, whose talent with offbeat stories produced the marijuana comedy Saving Grace (featuring Craig Ferguson before he became a fixture on late-night TV), the successful Calendar Girls (starring Helen Mirren) and the recent critical favorite Made in Dagenham. $5 a Day is one of two American films that Cole has made to date (the other is 2005's A Lot Like Love), and it reflects a genuine appreciation for the texture of mundane Americana. Sometimes it takes an outsider to really show you your own country. As Cole acknowledges in the interview on this disc, Walken's attachment gave him a great advantage in casting the rest of the picture, because everyone wants to work with Walken. For a long time, Cole said he wanted "a Sharon Stone type" to play the small but pivotal role of Dolores, the former babysitter to the son whose connection to both generations is full of unresolved emotion (think Crazy Stupid Love, but a lot older and much crazier). Eventually Cole realized that there was no such "type", only Stone herself, and when she heard she'd be working with Walken, she said yes immediately. (Their scenes are hilarious.) The lead role of the exasperated son was reportedly once assigned to Sam Rockwell, but ended up being played by Alessandro Nivola, who is one of those actors who's so good that no one recognizes him from role to role. Still best known for his work as Pollux Troy, the fey younger brother of Nicolas Cage in Face/Off, Nivola thoroughly transforms his speech, posture, demeanor and attitude for each part such that he becomes someone else. In $5 a Day, he becomes someone whose entire life is defined by lies, because he's the offspring of a father who is always working an angle, even on the rare occasion when he happens to be telling the truth.
Shot on film by Peter Donahue (The Fog of War) and finished on a digital intermediate, $5 a Day has been released on Blu-ray by Image Entertainment after a limited theatrical run in a 1080p, AVC-encoded presentation that is subtly terrific. I say "subtly", because there aren't any scenes in the film that "pop" with bright colors and stark contrasts. This is an everyday world shot in real locations like IHOP and Chevron stations, and it's not by coincidence that the cinematographer is best known for his work on documentaries. The unobtrusive camera style and muted color scheme (with a few exceptions such as Nat's car and Dolores' tacky decor and wardrobe) are essential to the film's world, and the Blu-ray renders these faithfully. Black levels and contrast are very good, as is the level of detail within the frame. Look around Nat's lair in Atlantic City, and you can make out all manner of items in the detritus of his life. A fine pattern of natural-looking film grain is readily evident, but unless you're the kind of viewer who objects to the visual texture of film, it shouldn't interfere with your viewing. There were no signs of invasive digital tampering, such as high frequency filtering or artificial sharpening, nor were there any compression artifacts.
The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track for $5 a Day doesn't have any showy, "demo" passages, but it has a lot of subtle surround effects, if you're paying attention. Early in their cross-country drive, Nat and Flynn make the first of many stops at an IHOP, and as they sit in their booth sparring, you can hear the clink of glasses and flatware on plates all around them. The soundtrack is full of such subtle ambiance, whether it's the sounds of the Steel Pier above Nat's digs in Atlantic City or the party/political rally that the Parkers crash at Kruger's home. Dialogue is clear, and the score by Alex Wurman, whose eclectic resume extends from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy to HBO's recent Temple Grandin, is well represented. The soundtrack also includes several distinctively off-beat songs, notably "I Don't Mind" by Marcus Foster, which plays at the beginning and end. Director Cole reportedly wanted the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want", but the cost was prohibitive.
Walken's Nat brings to mind another failed father he portrayed, but in a mainstream film: Frank Abagnale, Sr. in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002). Frank Sr. was a sadder and more poignant figure, because his reach exceeded his grasp; he wanted to be not only successful, but also respectable with the world's admiring eyes upon him. When he couldn't achieve his dream, he put all his hopes on his son, Frank Jr. By contrast, Nat doesn't care what the world thinks of him, and that is a very liberating state of mind. The only thing holding Nat back from complete freedom is that he does care about his son's opinion, and it's fascinating to watch Walken explore how Nat tries to resolve that tension—and to watch Flynn's dawning awareness of what he really means to his father. $5 a Day draws comedy from its characters' eccentricity and frustration, but it draws other things too. Highly recommended.
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