http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/09/15/KING-OF-CALIFORNIA.aspx KING OF CALIFORNIA is a rare show business occurrence, when the stars align and what could have been a ho-hum film becomes something special.  The heavenly bodies in this case are Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood, and both are at the absolute top of their game.  Their performances alone are worth the price of admission – even at today’s inflated rates.  Ironically, it’s Douglas, the more experienced of the two, with an Oscar and dozens of films to his credit, who has an easier time of it.  He plays Charlie, a Don Quixote-ish character, fresh out of two years in a mental institution.  He’s convinced that an 18th Century Spanish missionary’s cache of doubloons lies buried underneath a Costco.  Bearded, unkempt he plays the role appropriately over the top, determined to find it.  “Sometimes I wake up and don’t know if I exist,” he tells his daughter, Miranda. “Maybe if I do this I will exist.” Miranda (Wood) is just 17 years old and has been on her own the last two years.  Her mother, a crazy hand model, abandoned them years ago.  Charlie is a jazz musician who tried to commit suicide and was only saved when his daughter barged in when she heard him gasping for air.  Yet even without parents, Miranda has managed to hold her life together.  She quit school and got a job at McDonald’s – but was a neat and orderly life turns upside down when her father returns. en-US Critics Rant info@criticsrant.com Subtext Version 1.9.4.0 http://www.criticsrant.com/images/default_gravatar_bullhorn.png http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/09/15/KING-OF-CALIFORNIA.aspx 77 60