Rating:  -
If you're a fan of Gael Garcia Bernal, then you must see this movie. After renting it several times, I purchased a copy of my own so that I could watch it again and again. The movie is entertaining with a bit of mystery and drama. Gael Garcia Bernal is gorgeous.
Rating:  -
As a latecomer to this film I just happened upon it in the Used DVD section of a local music store the other day, and I eagerly purchased it while being curious how this Pastor's family tale would unwrap itself, no pun intended.
To say that I was and still am disturbed by the story is to write the obvious, not to mention a bit cliche judging by some reviews I've read for this film. The long lost son is looking for his father who rejects him right off the bat, which makes for some interesting and deeply sad foundation to the story....something which I was very moved by being that I am a product of the Christian Church and even a seminary graduate....how I was trying to rewrite the story on-the-spot that Elvis was hugged and embraced by the pastor and courageously welcomed into the congregation! ( That is the true love of God, the forgiveness and grace of Christ that I wanted to see shown through this pastor, yet I was also intrigued by the VERY REAL possibility and humanity of the pastor being ashamed and protective AND hypocritical....so I was not in the least bit turned off by this film portraying that ). So, even before that meeting between said Elvis and Pastor the former "son" had already taken a liking to the pastor's daughter,Mallory...AND he moves in for the kill, pun intended, when he later defends his right to be with her (after manipulating her and crossing her boundaries, romantically and sexually) by killing off Mallory's brother who has come to protect her (protecting her innocence and/or maybe he thinks this Elvis guy is "shady" unlike the filmmakers' commentary that the pastor's family just had fear towards the Elvis guy so they wanted to eliminate him----which is an obvious blanket prejudice of the filmmakers which I do not support---if someone were following my car home from church to give my husband/father a "hug" and I didn't know who that person was you better believe that I'd wonder if this person was very hurt/needy or perhaps unstable or perhaps even dangerous...that's not a bad thing, but being wise and discerning, aka Street-Smarts!!) Anyway, I digress.
I don't know what is more disturbing about this film: the fact that the filmmakers stated that some people saw Elvis as "not bad" OR the "fairy tale" music that permeated some creepy scenes of Elvis fairly graphically "making love" to Mallory (he is 21 and she's 16, so it's statutory rape, yes?!) OR that this sweet music (kind of Motherspaugh-esqe a la "Bottle Rocket") is continuing through scenes where the pastor is unknowingly taking Elvis under his arm (with the kind of love he SHOULD have shown at the outset) while his missing son, who Elvis has killed, is still manipulated from the pastor's understanding by Elvis' cruel, lying ways OR how he clued Mallory in to how her brother died by lying to her ("he threatened me"...oh, poor baby) OR how Elvis abused Mallory's trust by praying with her for God's forgiveness AND lying to God in his prayer??!! I mean, Elvis was one sick mutha...so was that music chosen as a kind of pseudo-artistic means towards irony....I am wondering if the filmmakers are a little sick in the head...if irony was the slant, then they did a very poor job of showing contrast in that regard...that did NOT work at all. And in their commentary at the end they stated, in a surprised tone, that people thought Elvis looked mad AS IF HE WAS GONNA DO SOMETHING BAD to the pastor AFTER HE HAD KILLED OFF MALLORY AND HER MOTHER!!? Give me a gigantic break!? Elvis was on his way to becoming a serial killer, wasn't he? Are we supposed to be so sympathetic towards him AFTER he played God (not really what God would do) by murdering now 3 people and burning down the house then going to the pastor's office to "get right"?? He ultimately showed his true colors...that he cared more about himself than Mallory or her brother or her mother or his father/pastor OR the honor of HIS mother...he truly disrespected her ( but God the most) in committing these grave acts!
Seldom do I not recommend films, but this is one of those times. While I found the acting to be solid, the storyline and disturbing commentary and directing decisions (to show the bare breast of a "16 year-old" while Elvis was grinding away) led me towards a rejection of the film. Believe me, I am no prude, but to passively portray the sick behavior in the film as just a part of "everyone has something wrong with them", something to that effect that the filmmakers stated, as if there is a moral/immoral equivalence throughout all the characters, is just plain rubbish and cowardly, in my opinion.
Why not have the courage to draw out the drama of Elvis' horrible/terrible acts against more sinister or troubling music? Why not draw out the contrast of Elvis' criminal behavior against the devastating realization that the pastor was a part of Elvis' deep pain and loss of his father in his life? ( Who wouldn't want to see William Hurt act out the complexity of mourning the loss of his family, feeling the rage towards Elvis, and grieving his previous "sin" of seeing a prostitute and having a son he didn't know about for 21 years?? ) No, it seems like the filmmakers put the resulting burden subtly back on the pastor, like it's really his fault----as if they were indirectly telling us, "Well, ya know, he was never there for Elvis, then rejected him, so really what Elvis did was basically, pretty much that Christian pastor's fault." Whoops, maybe I just opened a can of worms....was this film in the end a knock against "religious" folks and/or Christians? Maybe. If so, do the filmmakers have the courage to admit that? I think not.
So, in the spirit of the film, I "courageously" recommend this film.....NOT!!!
Rating:  -
movie is good bit i didn't expect it to be a killer movie but as the whole movie goes it was a good movie
Rating: -
I love the movie. but the thing that through me off is when I found out gael and the girl are related. lol but the movie is amazing and shocking and the same time!! I say go watch it!!
Rating: -
Spanish actor Gael Garcia Barnel, whom American audiences know from "Motorcycle Diaries" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien," turns in a credible performance as a young American just out of the Navy, who tracks down the man (William Hurt) who once fathered him out of wedlock. Now married with teenage children and pastor of a large congregation in Corpus Christi, the man is in no mood to accept a son conceived in sin, and his refusal sets in motion a kind of murderous vendetta that is played out in the rest of the film.
Once you accept the premise of the story, the unexpected and sometimes implausible turns of plot take on an unavoidable inevitability, all the way to its abrupt ending. In an age of embarrassing revelations about the personal lives of high-profile church leaders, this film has a currency for viewers both in and out of the Bible Belt. Behind the blissful appearances, this particular preacher's family is unspeakably troubled, so much so that mother and daughter seem submerged in a grim silence, ready to bristle with resistance to the man who rules their lives. Meanwhile, his son, openly admired in public, draws his rebuke by revealing something of the boy's own personal anguish during a Sunday morning service. Barnel's Elvis (the "King" of the title) becomes a sweet-faced angel of vengeance, and when he's done there is virtually nothing left undone. This film rightly got two thumbs up from Ebert and Roeper. It's worth seeing.
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