$5 a Day (2008)

$5 a Day (Nigel Cole, 2008)
Walken plays: Nat Parker - Thrifty grifter, resourceful rascal, deadbeat yet delightful dad



Synopsis: Stop me if you've heard this one: a deadbeat dad and his troubled, estranged son are forced into a reluctant cross-country road trip, only to reconnect through a series of hilarious misadventures. Yep. Not only is the cliché already trod to death, but it's a road Walken himself had already gone down only four years prior with Around the Bend (this time subbing out Michael Caine for Alessandro Nivola, aka, 'the poor man's Sam Rockwell'... booo). Still, $5 a Day manages to circumvent its feeble premise with surprisingly disarming sweetness and charm aplenty. It even managing to raise a few unreserved laughs here and there, as Walken and Nivolo weave their 'Sweet 'N Low-mobile' through a series of free samples, promotions, time shares, idle theft, falsified birthdays, and a Sharon Stone cameo in the interests of keeping as low an economic footprint as possible (some of which I'm ashamed to admit I'm sorely tempted to try - that hotel room service theft gag looks mighty doable...) and to become, in Nat's words, "copacetic again". If anything, the film deserves some metatextual cudos for the astonishing amount of unabashed product placement it sneaks in, which likely substantiated its tiny indie budget. I'm serious - check out the deep focus in this shot and tell me you're not impressed with its clever callousness:

Walken redefines the term 'charming the pants off' his audience here. Namely, because he seems to spend roughly half the movie with his pants off...

Exhibit A: Open house exhibits are better done pantsless 

Exhibit B: this time with more swimming pool follies

In $5 a Day, he dusts off his 'charismatic loser dad' schtick he could probably do in his sleep by now. Still, he's having such an absolute ball throughout that it's hard not to share in his fun. It helps that, unlike other similar fare such as One More Time, twists and turns in the story reveal his Nat Parker to be more sympathetic and less of an absentee dick than initial impressions would have it. Walken appears to wholeheartedly buy into Nat's 'living large on someone else's dime' philosophy with gusto, while also, with no warning, discerningly locking down into almost panic attack levels of silent dread when Nat is confronted with questions his denial simply prevents him from answering. There are too many loveable moments to count here: Nat belligerently coaxing his son into sharing a wishbone with him, only to win the split at all costs; talking his way out of being caught (again, pantsless) of an open house viewing of the home he's been squatting in; politely attempting to rebuff aggressive seduction by Sharon Stone, only to enthusiastically succumb.

But one in particular stands out: camped out at the home of Sharon Stone's fellow con artist/former babysitter, Nivola finds Walken face-down in the pool. He cries out, leaps into the pool fully clothed, to try to rescue and resuscitate his father, only to find that his father was awake the whole time. Walken, instead, turns it into a boyish game of water-wrestling, and repeatedly headlocks and throws a flustered Nivola into the water while letting out battle cries like "Yabbo!!!" "Wahaaa!!!" It's no wonder that even Nivola seems to break his character's righteously indignant grumpiness strangely early, unable to keep a huge grin off his face throughout.

Wacky Walken Dialogue: He's got a few choice ones here, all too good not to share:

• "I'm sort of monkish. All I need is my bowl. I go from village to village, tapping my stick."
• "I slept like a polar bear!" 
• "Sears. Solid store. Good return policy." 
• [when caught pantsless by the realtor giving the open house tour] "The house is lovely, but my partner and I are looking for something more feng shui-ish." 

There's also a great scene (which was apparently improv'd!) where a tipsy Nivola explains that a question mark is a hieroglyph representing the ass of a cat walking away disapprovingly, which Walken attempts to uncover the mechanics of to an amusingly in-depth extent. 

"Does this look like a Q to you? How about now?"

DOES HE DANCE: So. Much. We've got it all: little jazz hand flourishes to punctuate points, an enthusiastic little 'get 'dem old bones moving again' wiggle, and a prolonged scene where Nat, attempting to blend in as a pharmaceuticals rep at a hotel conference, blows his cover by excessively flirting and dancing with the moderator's wife. Spectacular.

Overall Walken-o-meter: 8/10 cowbells. The film's broad comedy and inspirational strokes may not look like much on the surface, but it's brimming with indie sweetness, and thoroughly hard to dislike, cliché or not. Walken is its lynchpin, in a perfect cocktail of his most charismatic, wacky, sombre, cavorting, and remorseful leitmotifs that somehow blend into an individual that still feels fresh and heartfelt amidst the Walken tics. A low key but surprisingly enjoyable hidden gem worth dredging up amidst the copious dreck occupying the latter half of Walken's career, if only to see him firing on all four cylinders here.