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.
Comment
06/08/06
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
A rather beautifully produced indie mix of melodrama, ethnographic detail, and modern Southern gothic.
05/30/06
Top CriticMilo Addica's script delves into emotionally messy territory... and director James Marsh embraces the ambiguity, sometimes at the expense of the characters.
06/22/06
"The King" is a very distasteful picture that left me feeling uneasy and irritated.
06/19/06
It's not a story easily shaken, however, or easily pigeonholed, inhabiting instead a bright and evil category all its own.
05/18/06
Programmed by the fatalistic filmmakers toward a cruel outcome, but the actors make it convincing...
08/11/06
The film is an accomplished piece of mischief making that directly confronts religious conviction, in this case Christian, with its worst nightmare: can you really forgive evil?
05/17/05
Top CriticLet's get one thing straight: I do not like Gael Garcia Bernal.
05/19/06
A showcase for big ideas that winds up feeling empty.
07/07/06
Top CriticThe soundtrack is brilliant, the cinematography strange and wonderful and the performances are creepy good.
06/16/06
The real acting sparks are generated by Hurt, delivering an absolutely sincere performance as a reformed sinner basking in God's love.
07/07/06
The King suffers from an overbearing sense of its own self-importance.
06/24/06
The filmmakers' stoicism finally proves insurmountable and indefatigable
10/17/06
I'm all in favor of warts-and-all depictions of Christians, but the closer you look, the more you realize that warts are all this film has to offer.
09/25/06
A dark and deeply unsettling movie with its roots in classical tragedy.
06/09/06
Top CriticThe many possible ways to read the film might be more fruitful if Marsh's direction was more assured.
07/15/06
Marsh takes a clever approach to a controversial idea, but he never makes it terribly engaging
10/13/05
It is an intelligent, disturbing thriller.
06/22/06
Top CriticWhile the appealing Mr. Bernal can do little with the cruel task he has been given, the rest of the cast, particularly Mr. Hurt and Mr. Dano, invest their characters with real feeling.
05/27/06
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
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