Flynn is suffering a mid-mid life crisis. He has lost his job, his girlfriend and his estranged father wants to talk to him; things have gone better. When he agrees to meet his father, Nat, he soon finds out that Nat doesn’t have long to live and needs someone to take him to New Mexico to treat a tumor. Flynn (whose real name is Ritchie) reluctantly agrees and soon finds out that the torture he was expecting on the cross-country venture turns out to be some of the best moments he has in his life.
While I won’t beat around the bush about the movie being slightly shallow, there was some slight charm to it. $5 a Day isn’t complicated to figure out. Nat (Christopher Walken) is a con-artist that is living his life to its fullest with his son, while he still can. You can never fully trust Nat as an audience member as he constantly (and in the past) screws over his son. Somewhere along the way, very gradual, Nat slowly turns into a very endearing father that really wants a relationship with his son. The process of getting to that point is very subtle, and again shallow. When you arrive you find a very sweet man in Walken’s Nat. If the journey were a metaphor it would be like finding the perfect sweater to wear in the winter; it’s not overly exciting, but the end result is very comforting. That metaphor pretty much provides you with the entire scope of the film itself.
The film is really laid-back and you can see that within the actors. There were times when Walken would say something and Alessandro Nivola (Ritchie/Flynn) would react as if the camera had stopped rolling and outtakes were happening. Director Nigel Cole’s decision to keep this sort of laid-back attitude towards the film is what really keeps it interesting. It does say that the film isn’t taking itself too seriously, but also that it’s okay to be lighthearted as an audience. It’s a perfect device to keep the audience rolling.
On the flip side to this, the movie does sport some very unusual issues. The biggest is how the characters on the road fit in with the two leads. Sharon Stone’s Dolores Jones is weirdly placed in the plot. While the cover of the Blu-ray certainly sports her as an important player, she has about 10 minutes of onscreen time in about a two-hour film. Once you move beyond her she doesn’t really return in any capacity. The same thing with Peter Coyote’s Burt Kruger (Bert if you go by the subtitles). I won’t tell you how he fits into the schemes, but he really doesn’t belong; he is more of a device to turn that corner with the story. Once he appears, much like Stone’s Dolores, he disappears. Having these two major plot point characters hardly be involved in the overall story is both baffling and irresponsible of the director, writers and producer.
Anyway, the story is charming, though shallow. If you can forgive the misplacement of major characters and the lack of cohesiveness with those characters then you’ll probably enjoy $5 a Day. The two main leads still make the movie fun.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film there is good, but not great visuals. For as many places as the pair visited on their cross-country trip you would think the footage would look prettier. The overall look was good, but there was so much graininess in some of the gloomier scenes that it was tough to overcome in comparison to other movies on the format. I do understand that this isn’t a ginormously budgeted film, but if you’re going to put it on Blu-ray then you should definitely clean it up a bit when it needs it. Still, it’s better than DVD, but I’ve seen better Blu-ray.
Finally, the features that you get are few, but interesting. You get some SD interviews with director and cast. You don’t get an interview with Walken, which is regretful, but everyone else gives their two bits. It’s amazing to find out that the shoot lasted 23 days (very amazing) and some other details about Walken and other cast members. Other than these interviews you get still galleries and a trailer.