It's too full of tired clichis to be the Night of the Hunter it wants to be, but it tries its best, and the top-notch performances from Bernal and Hurt carry the deadweight.
Comment
05/18/06
The King (2006)
55
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:76
Fresh:42
Rotten:34
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: This disturbing film about the past coming back demanding its due evokes classical tragedy, but is ultimately too heavy-handed.
Theatrical Release:May 19, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $157,875
Synopsis: Gael Garcia Bernal (THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES) may posses the rugged good looks of a classic screen star but he continues to dodge Hollywood, instead choosing to follow his own idiosyncratic path with... [More]
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, William Hurt, Pell James, Paul Dano
Director: James Marsh
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Reviews for The King
The degree to which this film is unsettling is testimony to the strength of the acting and direction.
06/13/08
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11/20/08
A dark and deeply unsettling movie with its roots in classical tragedy.
06/09/06
Top CriticYou think the movie is going to be one thing, like maybe a family drama about forgiveness for past wrongs, but it totally heads off in directions you don't expect.
04/24/06
It's not a story easily shaken, however, or easily pigeonholed, inhabiting instead a bright and evil category all its own.
05/18/06
A strange, disturbing movie that will appeal to you if you like to leave the theater with lots of questions to mull over.
06/22/06
It is an intelligent, disturbing thriller.
06/22/06
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.
05/20/06
The director, James Marsh (who wrote the script with Milo Addica), is a genius at keeping both levels in focus -- the conventional thwarted romance on top, the unholy mythic horror show under the surface.
05/18/06
Top CriticIn various ways this is a strangely impressive movie.
06/23/06
It's not until it's over that you fully appreciate how emotionally suspenseful it was.
05/06/06
A complex, deeply disturbing parable that's certain to find as many detractors as fans.
06/09/06
The imagery and the acting are often sufficiently persuasive, reminding one of the old, um, cliché about clichés being clichés because they're true.
05/30/06
Imaginative re-interpretation of the Garden of Eden theme.
05/15/06
Surely among the darkest-themed movies ever made, British director James Marsh's The King is the jaw-dropping story of a born-again Christian facing the sins of his past in ways unimaginable.
05/19/06
Top CriticOffers a fascinating consideration of religion and religiosity, sin and revenge, and the ultimate question for Christians: Can evil be forgiven?
06/24/06
Dense with religious allegory, The King is so bizarre and so sly even the Catholic Church didn't know whether to ban it or not.
06/08/06
Programmed by the fatalistic filmmakers toward a cruel outcome, but the actors make it convincing...
08/11/06
Even if the filmmakers are to be distrusted as slumming ethnological tourists, they treat the message of religious fundamentalism seriously.
06/16/06
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