Directed by Dominic Sena. Starring Brad Pitt, David Duchovny, Juliette Lewis, Michelle Forbes. Synopsis: A struggling writer who has targeted the topic of serial killers for his next book and his artist girlfriend start an impromptu move from the East Coast to
This one was a pleasant surprise for me, as I had never seen it or heard much about it even though its over a decade old. What's interesting is that, even though there are some big time names in the cast, the film was made before any of them were big stars, at least to the extent they are today in the case of Pitt and Duchovny.
Duchovny plays a writer who has had moderate success, and has an advance in hand that paid for a nice place and not much else, but he has to come up with the book now. His chosen topic, a theme of personal fascination for him, is serial killers. He has a strong willed artist girlfriend (Michelle Forbes) who will help him on the book but is tired of falling short in her own career and wants to, as they say, blow this town and head West to
They decide not to let the fact that they don't have the money for the move stop them, they will just find someone to share expenses in the drive...which will also feature frequent stops to research murder sites across the country for the book. Well, the pool of folks who are going to be interested in this offer is slim but, luckily, there is a couple who take them up on it, Early and Adele.
We've met Early (Pitt) and his live in girlfriend (Lewis) previously in the movie, before the two stories get tied together. Early and Adele live in a run down trailer, are behind on their rent much to the anger of their landlord, and Early is out on parole and not impressing his parole officer. We never find out exactly what Early did time for, but we know from the outset that his conflict resolution skills are not the best as he deals with his landlord by killing him. Now, of course, Early wants to head out of town himself and he gets no resistance from the compliant Adele, who does not know about the killing and truly thinks of her man as a nice guy. So, it seems like a good pairing when the two couples meet up, if not the best cultural mix.
One thing amateur criminologists know is that they say that serial killers don't just stop. Well that is apparent in Early's case, as he can't even wait until the end of the cross country drive. Of course, his activities can't be hidden forever and, soon, his three travel friends know that they are riding shotgun with a killer.
This film is almost completely focused on the four main characters, although there are some strong one or two scene performance from minor characters as well. The story revolves around Duchovny and Pitt's characters. Duchovny is just like you would expect him to be, even in his pre X Files days: introspective, abstract, empathetic, and sometimes infuriating. His attitude is to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and he does this with the crude Early from the beginning. In fact, it seems as if he kind of admires Early's bottom line approach to things that is in tune with his uninformed view of the world.
As for Pitt's Early, this role is vital to the success of the film because he needs to be somewhat empathetic for us to buy him being able to so completely dominate the devoted Adele, as well as convince anyone to trust him even for a minute. He does this. Early is crude and simple, but engaging at times and its clear that Pitt really got into this role. (In the limited special features, Pitt says he was "born" to play the role) I like Pitt, though I'm not a huge fan, and I would say that this is the best I've ever seen him.
The female characters are important, too, which, unfortunately, you can't always say in movies with any real action. Michelle Forbes is perfect as the loving but irritating girlfriend who is really the (unheeded) voice of reason in her coupling with Duchovny. Juliette Lewis might have been the best of a pretty good cast as she is the only character who is completely likable and you feel for her from the beginning.
To me, Kalifornia is more of a drama than anything, but there are pockets of action and those of you that have to see blood in your flicks will see some here. I thought this film was well directed, superbly acted, with an interesting story line. It took me 13 years, but I'm glad I saw this one and wouldn't mind adding it to the collection. For anyone who is a Pitt or Lewis fan, this is a must see.
Leave a comment