KING OF THE HILL
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
Rating (Linear 0 to 10): 8.6
Date Released: varies Running Length: 1:49 Rated: PG (Mature themes)
Starring: Jesse Bradford, Jeroen Krabbe, Lisa Eichhorn, Adrien Brody, Spalding Gray, Elizabeth McGovern, Karen Allen Director: Steven Soderbergh Producers: Albert Berger, Barbara Maltby, and Ron Yerxa Screenplay: Steven Soderbergh based on the memoirs of A. E. Hotchner Music: Cliff Martinez Released by Gramercy Pictures
In the midst of the Great Depression, in the city of St. Louis, the family of Aaron Kurlander (Jesse Bradford) is falling apart. His little brother has been shipped off to live with an uncle, his sick mother (Lisa Eichhorn) has been admitted to a sanitarium, and his father (Jeroen Krabbe) must go on the road to make money. So Aaron is left on his own in a fleabag hotel, with no money and few friends. Life becomes a struggle for the twelve year old--the hotel wants to evict him and his meager supply of food is running dangerously low--and it's only through his remarkable resourcefulness that he manages to survive.
Rarely has 1933 St. Louis been so real. Steven Soderbergh (best known for his debut feature SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE) has taken the time and effort necessary to bring the period to life with uncompromising accuracy. Many period pieces give only token acknowledgment to the era in which they take place, but KING OF THE HILL has the Great Depression woven inextricably throughout. Flawless detail is an undeniable asset.
1993 has seen movie after movie featuring boys struggling to reach maturity while discovering an identity. AMERICAN HEART, THIS BOY'S LIFE, and SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER are a few of the better ones, but none is as impressive as KING OF THE HILL, perhaps because none has quite as simple a tale to tell. The film is what it claims to be: a series of interrelated reminiscences about the life of an abandoned child in the midst of one of this nation's most difficult times.
There is much in KING OF THE HILL to enthrall. The characters--even those we don't see much of--are rich, and the situations are, for the most part, entirely believable (I had a little trouble with a scene involving a runaway car, but that was the only sequence that struck a false note). Soderbergh has carefully developed this movie to draw out the drama without resorting to tired plot devices. The fact is, Aaron's story, no matter how plain it might initially seem, is powerful in its simplicity.
Of course, to do justice to the plot, an effective young actor was needed to play Aaron. Jesse Bradford's performance is natural and unforced and we never get the sense that he's doing more than reacting to circumstances. The film revolves around Aaron, and Bradford is up to the task, regardless of the complexity of the emotions he is expected to show. Take, for example, the touching, bittersweet relationship that develops between Aaron and a lonely, epileptic girl living down the hall. The resonance of scenes with these two is remarkable.
While no one else has nearly as much screen time as Bradford, the young actor has established actors supporting him. Foremost are Jeroen Krabbe and Lisa Eichhorn as Aaron's father and mother, each of whom does a fine job with their material. Krabbe comes across as concerned for his children, but painfully distracted by financial difficulties. Eichhorn takes pains to bring sympathetic realism to a small role.
Adrien Brody gives an energetic performance as Lester, Aaron's best friend and mentor. Noted monologist Spalding Gray plays an intelligent, frustrated middle-aged man whose relationship with a prostitute (Elizabeth McGovern) Aaron has difficulty categorizing. The two are obviously intimate, yet they appear to have only contempt for one another. McGovern, like Karen Allen as Aaron's teacher, is underused.
It's amazing how something so deceptively uncomplicated can be so effective. The narrative is relatively straightforward; Soderbergh doesn't employ any unusual chronologies. His style is frank, not quirky, and lends itself to a number of powerful images: a starving boy cutting out pictures of food and serving them on a plate, a homeless man waving hello, a puddle of blood-tainted water seeping from underneath a closed door.
As in life, there are a few unanswered questions at the end of KING OF THE HILL, but most of these deal with peripheral issues and in no way detract from the satisfaction imparted by the film. Done with less mastery, this could have been just another run-of-the-mill coming of age story. However, with Soderbergh at the helm (confirming the ability he showed in SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE which some thought might have been a flash in the pan after the disappointing follow-up of KAFKA), this becomes a remarkable odyssey about a resilient young hero who uses both his imagination and his sense of reality to survive.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
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