Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
63
(22 sources)
63
(22 sources)
-
88
TV Guide
Wood is excellent, but this is a career highlight for Douglas. His depiction of the manic Charlie stays surprisingly grounded and prevents the story from being a naive celebration of mental illness as a kind of freedom that it so easily could have become. Read Full Review » -
83
Entertainment Weekly
It's as if the star (Douglas) finally gets to integrate all his onscreen personas, all at once. Read Full Review » -
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
With Douglas, the film's shambling charms slowly catch hold, thanks mainly to his personal magnetism. Read Full Review » -
75
Rolling Stone
In updating Shakespeare's "The Tempest," writer-director Mike Cahill focuses on the magic worth finding between a father and daughter. That's why the film sticks with you. It's a gift. Read Full Review » -
75
New York Daily News
Cahill deserves major credit for keeping the story from becoming mawkish or twee. He was also wise enough to realize it's Douglas' show, and as soon as he steps into the frame, you'll know it, too. Read Full Review » -
75
Premiere
The result is enjoyable and frequently affecting. The one weak note is Douglas' performance -- he does more than phone it in, but his essential Douglas-ness makes the character less believable than he might have been. Read Full Review » -
75
Chicago Sun-Times
When you stand back a step from the movie, you admire Douglas and Wood for starting with potentially unplayable characters, and playing them so well we actually care about a quest that, in a way, seems more designed for Abbott and Costello. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mike Cahill's King of California reminds me of those '70s-era pictures beloved of the counterculture about appealing rebels who go down in flames of moral victory. Read Full Review » -
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
The treasure of the film is the unearthing of the family bond, magically played by Douglas and Wood. Read Full Review » -
70
Chicago Reader
After a 40-year career playing jut-jawed a__holes, Michael Douglas must relish the occasional oddball role: he gave a winning performance as the pot-addled professor in "Wonder Boys," and he seems to be having a ball in this funny debut feature by Mike Cahill. Read Full Review » -
70
-
70
Los Angeles Times
The strange, funny and sad story of a bipolar jazz musician and his long-suffering teenage daughter, reunited after his two-year stay in a mental institution. Read Full Review » -
67
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67
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63
Boston Globe
A flaky, tedious, intermittently likable fable about being crazy in a crazy world. Read Full Review » -
63
ReelViews
The movie develops in two pieces - one dealing with the quest for the hidden riches and once concentrating on the relationship between father and daughter. The latter works; the former doesn't. Read Full Review » -
60
Film Threat
The film has a great visual style and manages to show Los Angeles in a fresh way that the average Hollywood eye isn't used to, while, on the acting front, Evan Rachel Wood surpasses Michael Douglas in scenes, solidifying herself as an actor to look out for. Read Full Review » -
60
The New York Times
King of California may look and feel realistic, but it is really a Don Quixote-like fable about nonconformity and pursuing your impossible dream to the very end. Read Full Review » -
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
If you're looking for a screwball comedy about bipolar disorder -- and who among us is not? -- then this picture fits the bill fine. However, if you're picky enough to want a good screwball comedy about bipolar disorder, well, I'm afraid the wait continues. Read Full Review » -
40
Village Voice
Hard to tell what's more annoying in this empty character study of eccentrics and the suckers who love them: the braying, blurting soundtrack or Douglas himself, who can't find his way into a man tortured by dull demons. Read Full Review » -
40
Washington Post
There's so little authenticity between them, it destroys the story's most crucial element: the love between father and daughter. And finding the gold becomes our only reason to watch. Read Full Review » -
38
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