Five Dollars a Day

"$5 a Day" is a father-son road trip movie. You may think you've seen that done way too many times before, but it plays out as if it's completely original. This is, quite simply, one of the best indie films ever. It may not be completely independent as it does have an all-star cast behind it.

The handsome and completely endearing Alessandro Nivola is Flynn, the son, who is just trying to live a normal life. Christopher Walken, still on top of his game, is Nat, the father, who schemes and lies his way into living and travelling on just 5 dollars a day. After Flynn loses his job and Nat insists he's dying, Flynn agrees to drive his father across the country for treatment. There are plenty of hilarious cons and schemes, but also some touching honesty, along the way.

"$5 a Day" is a fantastic dramedy. It is billed as a comedy and it does have some low-key humour and many laughs. But by just calling it a comedy, that doesn't seem to give the film full credit for the brilliant character writing. There is a lot of intelligent undertones in the actions of the characters as they each mature in the journey. And the writer did that with subtlety and humour, no melodrama here.

This film was done better than I ever thought a relationship road trip movie could be done. I laughed all of the way, just enjoying the characters, and I didn't find all of the subtle lessons on relationships until after it was over. Walken and Nivola had great chemistry and completely won me over. I now expect them to play father and son in all of their future movies.

Flynn Parker (Alessandro Nivola) is a corrupt health inspector who loses his job for not disclosing his criminal past. His girlfriend Maggie (Amanda Peet) moves out for keeping too many secrets. His con artist father Nat (Christopher Walken) tells him he's dying of cancer, and they go on a cross-country trip to New Mexico for an experimental treatment. Nat is proud of living on no more than $5 a day.

There isn't any real tension in this. I can't really understand why Flynn would go on the trip. He must be thinking his father is lying. It's completely out of character that Nivola has already laid out for Flynn. It seems much more likely that he would put his father on the Greyhound.

That aside, it's still nice to see Christopher Walken chew up the screen in this indie. Nivola is a completely low energy dude. He's not very compelling. There is a desperate need for funnier jokes to make this a fun dark comedy. It just isn't funny. Some of it is mildly cute.

If the late 2000s are the new 1930s then this is the perfect movie. In a time of recession we need Christopher Walken's optimistic, unrealistic, opportunistic grifter...

This was a real surprise - and a very pleasant one. I was expecting deep and sorrowful, but got hilarious, thoughtful, and even belly laughs - and enough grifts to make me wonder how or why we pay for anything anymore.

By turns honest, hilarious, outrageous, and moving this is all wrapped up in a lowball low-fi package that smacks of good indie roots.

Definitely one of my favorite movies of the year. Walken's gives a masterclass in comic timing, and Alessandro Nivola is a great straight man as the son who never could. And some great cameos. This is at times snort your milk through your nose funny, at others tragic: but it is not buffoonish in your face slapstick and even better for it.

All in all a really great little road movie that constantly sparkles with fresh ideas and little touches of originality that puts most movies to shame - I hope the Dobrofkys have got another 20 scripts like this - they deserve awards for the writing - a wonderful mix and they deserve lots of work on the basis of this.

And if I'm raving it's because it deserves it - it stands out from the crowd by a mile: fresh, witty, sincere, slightly surreal and oddball, and by the end, exemplary.

Get to see, you'll be glad you did.

Christopher Walken and Alessandro Nivola are Father and Son scheming and scamming their way from New Jersey to New Mexico. Much like "House of Games" and "The Grifters", this road odyssey plays like a house of mirrors. In other words, very little is exactly as it seems. Walken is estranged from his son because his irresponsibility landed Nivola in jail. Together they mend fences, while still working the angles along the road. Rarely have two characters been so unsympathetic, and yet somewhat sympathetic at the same time. If you enjoy road movies about rebuilding relationships, "$5 a Day" just might work for you. I know I enjoyed the ride. - MERK

A poor, charming film, full of cliches, nice for actors covering the fragile story, a shinning Sharone Stone and Christopher Walken in a role giving good feeling.

Fatherhood and a cross country road trip to solve old questions, easy life and living cheating, unrealistic situations and few smiles.

Short, just nice.