Movie Reviews this week looks at the comedy drama 5 Dollars a day. This is a charming movie about a street smart con-man and the relationship with his son.
It stars Christopher Walken (his performance in the Deer Hunter still remains legendary) as Nat Parker, who is using the system for his benefit, trying to patch his relationship with his son Ritchie played by Alessandro Nivola (Jurassic Park III).
We meet Ritchie at his place of work and soon we find out he is let go after the manager finds out he has a criminal past, he gets home only to find out his girlfriend Maggie played by the lovely Amanda Peet (The Whole Nine Yards) is leaving him, he happens to find a letter from his father that he had previously put in the trash. We find out that the two are estranged as Ritchie went to jail, taking the fall for a scam his father pulled, where he buys an automobile, replaces the part with junk takes it back to the salesman and gets a replacement saying the car he bought was nothing but junk. It turns out that one time the institution caught on, but his son's name was what was used on the paperwork, so Ritchie spends a considerable amount of time in jail for a crime his father committed, and he is none too pleased with his father about this.
Nat would like to make it up to him, and added the incentive that he is dying of a brain tumor, so Ritchie should come up and see him in an all expenses paid trip to Mexico where there is a new age treatment, that may or may not work, but after a while you realise, Nat simply wants to spend some time with his son.
The relationship between father and son is close, and you can tell immediately whatever bad feelings Ritchie had with his father, you know he can forgive him for anything, even when Ritchie finds out, it was his father who reported him to his place of work, that he had a criminal record, so he can be fired, as an impetus to get him to pay him a visit, as Nat puts it, the job was closing Ritchie in; he was too good for it.
On their road trip, Nat is in his element, with his social awareness able to get him into parties, and get many things for free, as he puts it you can survive on 5 dollars a day, hence the title. There is a brief cameo by Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) as Dolores Jones, who is eternally grateful to Nat for helping her get her Rotary license. It turns out Dolores used to babysit for Ritchie, and Ritchie remembers her fondly as she was his first infatuation, but it seems she only has eyes for his father.
5 Dollars a day is a very nice warm feeling of a movie, and Christopher Walken is his usual quirky self.
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