As a huge Christopher Walken fan, I always enjoy it when movies actually bother to have him play a character. Lots of directors hire Walken for an auto-pilot job, to have him do his usual thing for two or three scenes and then vanish. Don't get me wrong, I love those appearances as well, but here he actually seems to enjoy himself because of the challenge he gets. His performance here is subtle (no, I'm serious), composed and comical right when it needs to be. There's some good chemistry with Alessandro Nivola as well, the father-son bonding seems very genuine. In typical road movie fashion there isn't much of a plot, but there are just enough story elements to keep the movie interesting. The only thing that brings the movie down a bit is the detour they take to meet Sharon Stone's character, who doesn't serve much of a purpose and seems copy-pasted from Jim Jarmusch's "Broken Flowers". Apart from that, this movie is bittersweet and very touching, kind of a shame it's that unknown.
Review of $5 a Day
