From Day to Day, a Group of Con Artists Looks for Their Next Job

Evan Rachel Wood in "Kajillionaire" 
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Upon seeing the trailer for writer-director Miranda July’s comedy-drama, “Kajillionaire,” you would be forgiven for thinking that it looked like one of those overly quirky indie movies that would pop up in theaters throughout the early 2000s.  You see a trailer that presents a couple of minutes of a family acting eccentric and dressing funny, people who we’ve seen several iterations of many times before in movies that mistakes over-quirkiness for cleverness.

Thankfully, that couldn’t be less of the case for July’s movie.  It goes beyond what the trailer suggests it will offer, instead bringing you a movie that’s not only funny, but is also an unexpectedly moving examination on family and a critique on materialism.

In Los Angeles, a young woman named Old Dolio Dyne (Evan Rachel Wood) and her parents, Robert and Theresa (Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger), make a living as con artists, focusing on trivial thefts that allow them to live off of as little money as possible.  When Robert and Theresa decide to bring an outsider, Melanie Whitacre (Gina Rodriguez), in on their latest venture, Old Dolio will find her strained relationship with her parents become even more so.

Wood’s performance brings us one of the most unique characters to movies this year.  Old Dolio might seem like a character who isn’t anything but quirks, but she’s so much more than that.  Wood exhibits Old Dolio’s insecurities and detachment from her parents, showing us an individual who’s looking for someone to love her and not just use her when a scam needs to be accomplished.  Throughout the movie, Wood shows her character’s inner conflict of deciding whether to become a different person and break away from her parents, or remain who she is so she can gain their approval.  Wood punctuates her portrayal with small moments of emotion that provides us with a window early on with what she’s feeling, setting the stage for us to consider who her character will become by the end of the film.

Jenkins and Winger are terrific as parents who are set in their ways and refuse to even think about stopping their dishonest lives as con artists.  We see how stuck they are in their work and how it has caused their incapability, and even hesitancy, to build a healthy relationship with their daughter.  Jenkins and Winger show how their characters’ gears are always turning and how much scamming has become a way of life for them, trying to figure out their latest scheme so that they can live as easy of an existence as possible.  

Rodriguez provides superb work as Melanie constructing a memorable bond with Wood as their characters attempt to understand and connect with each other.  The chemistry that they share opens up avenues that you didn’t think this movie would explore, but it manages this in such a way that has it blend in with what came before, building upon the film’s theme about what it means to value people over things.

July’s screenplay takes some intriguing turns that make this movie something that’s much more than it seems.  What starts out as a fun heist caper soon becomes a story that explores the bond, or lack thereof, between Old Dolio and her parents.  We slowly move into the strain within this family, presenting characters who should have affection for each other, but just use each other to get what they want.  This is shown most poignantly in a scene about halfway through the film, where the family is in the middle of a scam and must pretend to be a family that’s closer to each other than they really are.  The way in which this scene is handled takes an emotional turn as we go from seeing who this family really is, to who they could be, yet refuse to be.

The screenplay also examines the topic of materialism in a way that doesn’t seem cliched.  Instead, it’s explored in a quiet and unexpectedly heartrending way, particularly in scenes where the story evaluates the dynamics between the four main characters, adding considerable depth to them and their situation.

In regard to directing, July is able to establish a touch of an off-kilter tone that introduces us to the lives of these characters, but still manages to ground the movie in a setting that’s very real and captures both the wittiness and emotion that goes into the lifestyle that Old Dolio and her family live.  In July’s pursuit to give us a story about how you don’t need to be rich in order to get by, “Kajillionaire” is a movie that’s rich with its message.

Grade: A