The King

Gael Garcia Bernal chilling in the church

Well whenever you watch a film containing incest themes, it's bound to be fucked. It's also kind of funny that after watching Junebug I happened to fall upon this film as it also features a white-christian-american family who are in denial about reality. Like Junebug, someone comes into the family and mixes things up a bit but in this case it's Gael Garcia Bernal as the character Elvis.

Elvis is the long lost son of the Father of the family who is actually a Pastor of one of those churches where they love to sing Christian rock songs and praise Jesus. Just think of the film 'Saved' and you're there. So of course Pastor David is very unwelcoming of Elvis and warns his family not to speak to the young man fresh from the navy. But David's daughter Malerie ends up seeing Elvis behind her father's back and forms a relationship with him not realising that he is in actual fact her half brother (yeah there's the incest theme!)

I didn't quite buy this film. I mean Malorie is all about loving God and the christian faith but then after not knowing this Elvis guy for very long she already starts having sex with him and without no explantation as to why they just get straight into it and continue to do so. Barnel's character isn't quite believable and there just wasn't enough character development for all characters. Sure there's always something suss about the Pastor's long lost son but he does go about things rather oddly.

I don't really know what to make of this film. It did have me drawn in and I wasn't all that convinced by the story or the characters. I think also seeing Barnel play an oddball is just too strange, I couldn't help but think of him as the adorable Stéphane in 'Science of Sleep.' It isn't really everyones cup of tea and not really mine.

Rating 2.5/5