Joe The King

Release Date: July 15th, 2000

Cast :

Directors: Frank Whaley

Life is not a fairy tale.  It does not always have a happy ending and can sometimes be painful in its brutal reality.  Rarely in films is the darker side of life captured, and when it is, the result is never easy to watch or swallow.  Frank Whaley’s debut effort, Joe The King is a movie that is very difficult to like, but very easy to admire.  It is admirable in its lack of fear in delivering a perspective into a dark side of Americana and reality for that matter.  It is fearless in its exploration of that side of society that most people are afraid to admit exists, but scared to admit really does.  Whaley hammers home each scene with a brutality that rarely shows itself in movies these days.  Hollywood has a tendency to go two directions when telling these types of stories.  Either they pour on the emotion and tug on the heart strings so hard that the desired effect is inevitable, but viewers are left feeling cheaply manipulated, or they attempt to sugar coat or turn it into something that has a redemptive quality so the viewer can feel like the left the theater with some glimmer of hope amidst the gloom.  Joe the King bucks both tendencies by letting reality have its natural effect rather than manufacturing a desired emotion.  The audience is left to find their own resolution and redemption.

The story is not as much a chronological telling events, as much as backdrop the recollection of painful events seemingly building to an inevitable powder keg.  Every scene is more painful to watch than the previous one, and the knowledge that this is building to something devastating seems obvious.  Joe is first shown at age 9, thoroughly embarrassed by a teacher in the school where is father is an alcohol soaked janitor.  This is the spark the lights the continuous line of gunpowder that flows through every scene.  Flashing ahead, we find Joe 5 years later, working illegally in a greasy spoon restaurant to keep his family going.  His father has spiraled out of control in his alcoholism, while his mother seems fed up and frustrated with the way things have turned out.  He continues to be tortured by his father’s legacy, painfully and unwillingly following in his footsteps.  Together with his brother and best friend, his only consistent allies, he rides through painful event after painful event in route to a conclusion that he both fears and realizes.

The performances are all powerful and first rate.  The plight of Joe’s life is portrayed so effectively by young Noah Fleiss.  The pain in his soul is captured in one brief scene in a diner where he views a family happily enjoying a meal out.  This sums up the ultimate goal and message of the film and is reflected in Fleiss’s eyes.  They say the eyes are the windows to the soul.  Fleiss’s show the range of emotions fighting inside him.  Viewers will feel his combination of pain, despair hope and ultimately realization of what his life truly is.  He reacts the only he knows, and at times seems to be trying to escape the madness that his life has become. Kilmer reportedly gained weight, ala DeNiro’s Raging Bull, to effectively convey Joe’s alcoholic father.  The Iceman displays are heretofore rarely seen dramatic touch, by conveying disdain, disinterest, anger, and also ultimately realization.  By the ending, a lot of eyes are opened, as are doors to where the characters lives will go afterwards.  The supporting roles keep this movie from become a heavy-handed emotion vehicle.  John Leguizamo as a womanizing co-worker and Ethan Hawke as a concerned guidance counselor give the movie that additional dose of reality by bringing in characters who like this movie are far from perfect, but believably real.

To some, the continually saddening plight of poor Joe may seem created strictly for Hollywood purposes.  However those who have never experienced of lived through a lifestyle similar this would be hard pressed to say all of these events could not have happened to one boy.  Around every turn is despair; every new character met introduces another element and layer of pain onto a life that is already devoid of any hope.  Whaley captures this, and by the movies end, leaves the audience feeling a plethora of emotions.  From drained, to sympathetic to disbelieving, to ultimately saddening, Joe carries through his emotional ride that is life, searching for a glimmer of hope the only way he knows how.  Could Whaley have toned it down and given the boy a glimmer of something to hang on to? Possibly, but it would have taken away from the ultimate result.  Joe The King is a film that need only be viewed once to get its message.  A film that shows that life doesn’t always have positive results, but does have the heart and spirit enough to not be completely hopeless.  This film would make a fitting companion piece to Leaving Las Vegas in that both show the destructive effects of alcoholism on life, without glorifying or creating a false sense of hope. While the consistent, and at times unnecessarily repetitive hammering does slightly dull the intended effect, the point still comes across, and the movie does reach inside and stay there long after the curtain falls.  See this movie once, take its message to heart, then walk away and heed the movies message of the glimpse for normalcy amidst the downpour of hopelessness. ($$$ out of $$$$)

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