$5 a Day

"$5 a Day" is a father-son road trip movie. You may think you've seen that done way too many times before, but it plays out as if it's completely original. This is, quite simply, one of the best indie films ever. It may not be completely independent as it does have an all-star cast behind it.

The handsome and completely endearing Alessandro Nivola is Flynn, the son, who is just trying to live a normal life. Christopher Walken, still on top of his game, is Nat, the father, who schemes and lies his way into living and travelling on just 5 dollars a day. After Flynn loses his job and Nat insists he's dying, Flynn agrees to drive his father across the country for treatment. There are plenty of hilarious cons and schemes, but also some touching honesty, along the way.

"$5 a Day" is a fantastic dramedy. It is billed as a comedy and it does have some low-key humour and many laughs. But by just calling it a comedy, that doesn't seem to give the film full credit for the brilliant character writing. There is a lot of intelligent undertones in the actions of the characters as they each mature in the journey. And the writer did that with subtlety and humour, no melodrama here.

This film was done better than I ever thought a relationship road trip movie could be done. I laughed all of the way, just enjoying the characters, and I didn't find all of the subtle lessons on relationships until after it was over. Walken and Nivola had great chemistry and completely won me over. I now expect them to play father and son in all of their future movies.

Stop me if you've heard this one: a deadbeat dad and his troubled, estranged son are forced into a reluctant cross-country road trip, only to reconnect through a series of hilarious misadventures. Yep. Not only is the cliché already trod to death, but it's a road Walken himself had already gone down only four years prior with Around the Bend (this time subbing out Michael Caine for Alessandro Nivola, aka, 'the poor man's Sam Rockwell'). Creativity is not the name of the game here.

Still, $5 a Day manages to circumvent its feeble premise with surprisingly disarming sweetness and charm aplenty, even managing to raise a few unreserved laughs here and there. Walken and Nivolo weave through a series of free samples, promotions, time shares, idle theft, falsified birthdays, and a fun and slinky Sharon Stone cameo, in the interests of keeping as low an economic footprint as possible (some of their escapades, I'm ashamed to admit, I'm sorely tempted to try - that hotel room service theft gag looks mighty doable...) and to become, in Walken's words, "copacetic again," even as his pathological lying leaves the viewer idly guessing throughout as to his motivations.

Their adventures may not reinvent the wheel, but they grow increasingly pleasant over time. Screenwriters Tippi and Neal Dobrofsky work in just enough wacky lines to keep things lively (the scene where a tipsy Nivola attempts to explain to a nonplussed Walken how a question mark is a hieroglyph representing the ass of a cat walking away disapprovingly alone is one for the ages). It's deceptively easy to ride alongside them, and even as the plot curves to inevitably digging into their past trauma and fractured relationships, it's handled in an impressively level and truthful fashion.

If anything, the film deserves some metatextual cudos for the astonishing amount of unabashed product placement it sneaks in, which likely substantiated its tiny indie budget. I'm serious - in a single shot alone, they park their 'Sweet 'n Low-mobile' in an IHOP parking lot across from a Chevron, with a McDonald's and Days Inn in the background. In any other film this blatant excess would be gross, but here the depth of field alone is kind of impressively resourceful.

Nivola, contrary to my earlier dismissal, does some very good work here, carrying the emotional arc of the story with a subtle affability. Still, there's no question that $5 a Day exists as a Walken vehicle above all else, and he redefines the term 'charming the pants off' his audience here. Namely, because he seems to spend roughly half the movie with his pants off. Here, he dusts off his 'charismatic loser dad' schtick he could probably do in his sleep by now. Still, he's having such an absolute ball that it's hard not to share in his fun. When you least expect it, he pulls the rug out from you by locking down into almost panic attack levels of silent dread when confronted with questions his denial simply prevents him from answering. Then, within moments, he's back to bounding, dancing, grinning, and unexpectedly yelling joyful battle cries like "Yabbo!!" and "Wahaaaa!!" throughout. It's a deceptively nuanced performance amongst the goofy posturing, and he's so lovable throughout that it's no wonder that even Nivola seems to break his character's righteously indignant grumpiness strangely early, unable to keep a huge grin off his face throughout.

$5 a Day's broad comedy and inspirational strokes may not look like much on the surface, but it's brimming with indie sweetness, and thoroughly hard to dislike, cliché or not. Walken is its lynchpin, in a perfect cocktail of his most charismatic, wacky, sombre, cavorting, and remorseful leitmotifs that somehow blend into an individual that still feels fresh and heartfelt amidst the Walken tics. A low key but surprisingly enjoyable hidden gem worth dredging up amidst the copious dreck occupying the latter half of Walken's career, if only to see him firing on all four cylinders here.

-6.5/10

Flynn Parker (Alessandro Nivola) is a corrupt health inspector who loses his job for not disclosing his criminal past. His girlfriend Maggie (Amanda Peet) moves out for keeping too many secrets. His con artist father Nat (Christopher Walken) tells him he's dying of cancer, and they go on a cross-country trip to New Mexico for an experimental treatment. Nat is proud of living on no more than $5 a day.

There isn't any real tension in this. I can't really understand why Flynn would go on the trip. He must be thinking his father is lying. It's completely out of character that Nivola has already laid out for Flynn. It seems much more likely that he would put his father on the Greyhound.

That aside, it's still nice to see Christopher Walken chew up the screen in this indie. Nivola is a completely low energy dude. He's not very compelling. There is a desperate need for funnier jokes to make this a fun dark comedy. It just isn't funny. Some of it is mildly cute.

Flynn Parker (Alessandro Nivola) thought he had broken free from his past. You see, his conman father, Nat (Christopher Walken) was always hustling and stretching the truth, causing a chaotic childhood. It finally resulted in Flynn taking the fall on one particular scheme and going to prison. For the past few years, Flynn has been living in the Los Angeles area and working as a health inspector. Unfortunately, the boss has just now gotten word of Flynn's criminal past and he is fired. To add insult to injury, Flynn's girlfriend, Maggie (Amanda Peet) has also moved out of their apartment, because of her boyfriend's failure to open up about his past to her. So, into this fine kettle comes word that Nat wants to see Flynn and asks him to fly to Atlantic City. Having no other job prospects at the moment, Flynn makes the journey. But, when he arrives, his dad tells him that he is dying from cancer. Not only that, he wants Flynn to drive him to Mexico for some experimental treatment and promises that it won't cost more than $5 a day in traveling expenses. This is because he has been given the use of a car, a pink beetle, with a sign for "Sweet and Low" sugar substitute. He also has a deal with Ihop for free meals and friends to stay with, like Dolores (Sharon Stone), along the way. If there aren't any pals, they can bunk in empty houses with "for sale" signs in the yard! Ha! Very reluctantly, Flynn agrees to go. At first, a reconciliation between the two men seems possible. But, can Flynn really trust that his father is telling the truth? As they journey, Flynn calls Maggie's answering machine and leaves messages that reveal more and more of the person he really is. Will they stay a couple, too? This truly enjoyable and sometimes tender film is just great for film fans looking for a change of pace. Nivola, so handsome, does a great job as the conflicted Flynn while Walken delivers another fine turn as the aging huckster. Stone's role is small but lively while Peet displays a fine sensitivity with a minimum of lines. Other cast members are good, too. As one might expect, the changing scenery across the United States is very lovely while costumes, photography, script and direction are quite up to snuff. In short, even if you must pay five bucks for a movie rental, this one has hidden treasures.

If the late 2000s are the new 1930s then this is the perfect movie. In a time of recession we need Christopher Walken's optimistic, unrealistic, opportunistic grifter...

This was a real surprise - and a very pleasant one. I was expecting deep and sorrowful, but got hilarious, thoughtful, and even belly laughs - and enough grifts to make me wonder how or why we pay for anything anymore.

By turns honest, hilarious, outrageous, and moving this is all wrapped up in a lowball low-fi package that smacks of good indie roots.

Definitely one of my favorite movies of the year. Walken's gives a masterclass in comic timing, and Alessandro Nivola is a great straight man as the son who never could. And some great cameos. This is at times snort your milk through your nose funny, at others tragic: but it is not buffoonish in your face slapstick and even better for it.

All in all a really great little road movie that constantly sparkles with fresh ideas and little touches of originality that puts most movies to shame - I hope the Dobrofkys have got another 20 scripts like this - they deserve awards for the writing - a wonderful mix and they deserve lots of work on the basis of this.

And if I'm raving it's because it deserves it - it stands out from the crowd by a mile: fresh, witty, sincere, slightly surreal and oddball, and by the end, exemplary.

Get to see, you'll be glad you did.