5 dollari al giorno

If the late 2000s are the new 1930s then this is the perfect movie. In a time of recession we need Christopher Walken's optimistic, unrealistic, opportunistic grifter...

This was a real surprise - and a very pleasant one. I was expecting deep and sorrowful, but got hilarious, thoughtful, and even belly laughs - and enough grifts to make me wonder how or why we pay for anything anymore.

By turns honest, hilarious, outrageous, and moving this is all wrapped up in a lowball low-fi package that smacks of good indie roots.

Definitely one of my favorite movies of the year. Walken's gives a masterclass in comic timing, and Alessandro Nivola is a great straight man as the son who never could. And some great cameos. This is at times snort your milk through your nose funny, at others tragic: but it is not buffoonish in your face slapstick and even better for it.

All in all a really great little road movie that constantly sparkles with fresh ideas and little touches of originality that puts most movies to shame - I hope the Dobrofkys have got another 20 scripts like this - they deserve awards for the writing - a wonderful mix and they deserve lots of work on the basis of this.

And if I'm raving it's because it deserves it - it stands out from the crowd by a mile: fresh, witty, sincere, slightly surreal and oddball, and by the end, exemplary.

Get to see, you'll be glad you did.

"$5 a Day" is a father-son road trip movie. You may think you've seen that done way too many times before, but it plays out as if it's completely original. This is, quite simply, one of the best indie films ever. It may not be completely independent as it does have an all-star cast behind it.

The handsome and completely endearing Alessandro Nivola is Flynn, the son, who is just trying to live a normal life. Christopher Walken, still on top of his game, is Nat, the father, who schemes and lies his way into living and travelling on just 5 dollars a day. After Flynn loses his job and Nat insists he's dying, Flynn agrees to drive his father across the country for treatment. There are plenty of hilarious cons and schemes, but also some touching honesty, along the way.

"$5 a Day" is a fantastic dramedy. It is billed as a comedy and it does have some low-key humour and many laughs. But by just calling it a comedy, that doesn't seem to give the film full credit for the brilliant character writing. There is a lot of intelligent undertones in the actions of the characters as they each mature in the journey. And the writer did that with subtlety and humour, no melodrama here.

This film was done better than I ever thought a relationship road trip movie could be done. I laughed all of the way, just enjoying the characters, and I didn't find all of the subtle lessons on relationships until after it was over. Walken and Nivola had great chemistry and completely won me over. I now expect them to play father and son in all of their future movies.

there isn't really much to say about this movie. the other reviewers have said about all that can be said. BUT i do not understand nor agree with the more negative reviews.

this story is nicely told and at times very funny and thoughtful. there are implausible and plausible situations these two cross country travelers find themselves or rather 'get' themselves into. the dialog and character development are adequate and easy to follow. in other words it's an easy light hearted story that is strictly for entertaining you. not deep thinking or symbolism.

this is an excellent choice for easy entertainment and having a few laffs along the way! give it a look - you'll like it.

Stop me if you've heard this one: a deadbeat dad and his troubled, estranged son are forced into a reluctant cross-country road trip, only to reconnect through a series of hilarious misadventures. Yep. Not only is the cliché already trod to death, but it's a road Walken himself had already gone down only four years prior with Around the Bend (this time subbing out Michael Caine for Alessandro Nivola, aka, 'the poor man's Sam Rockwell'). Creativity is not the name of the game here.

Still, $5 a Day manages to circumvent its feeble premise with surprisingly disarming sweetness and charm aplenty, even managing to raise a few unreserved laughs here and there. Walken and Nivolo weave through a series of free samples, promotions, time shares, idle theft, falsified birthdays, and a fun and slinky Sharon Stone cameo, in the interests of keeping as low an economic footprint as possible (some of their escapades, I'm ashamed to admit, I'm sorely tempted to try - that hotel room service theft gag looks mighty doable...) and to become, in Walken's words, "copacetic again," even as his pathological lying leaves the viewer idly guessing throughout as to his motivations.

Their adventures may not reinvent the wheel, but they grow increasingly pleasant over time. Screenwriters Tippi and Neal Dobrofsky work in just enough wacky lines to keep things lively (the scene where a tipsy Nivola attempts to explain to a nonplussed Walken how a question mark is a hieroglyph representing the ass of a cat walking away disapprovingly alone is one for the ages). It's deceptively easy to ride alongside them, and even as the plot curves to inevitably digging into their past trauma and fractured relationships, it's handled in an impressively level and truthful fashion.

If anything, the film deserves some metatextual cudos for the astonishing amount of unabashed product placement it sneaks in, which likely substantiated its tiny indie budget. I'm serious - in a single shot alone, they park their 'Sweet 'n Low-mobile' in an IHOP parking lot across from a Chevron, with a McDonald's and Days Inn in the background. In any other film this blatant excess would be gross, but here the depth of field alone is kind of impressively resourceful.

Nivola, contrary to my earlier dismissal, does some very good work here, carrying the emotional arc of the story with a subtle affability. Still, there's no question that $5 a Day exists as a Walken vehicle above all else, and he redefines the term 'charming the pants off' his audience here. Namely, because he seems to spend roughly half the movie with his pants off. Here, he dusts off his 'charismatic loser dad' schtick he could probably do in his sleep by now. Still, he's having such an absolute ball that it's hard not to share in his fun. When you least expect it, he pulls the rug out from you by locking down into almost panic attack levels of silent dread when confronted with questions his denial simply prevents him from answering. Then, within moments, he's back to bounding, dancing, grinning, and unexpectedly yelling joyful battle cries like "Yabbo!!" and "Wahaaaa!!" throughout. It's a deceptively nuanced performance amongst the goofy posturing, and he's so lovable throughout that it's no wonder that even Nivola seems to break his character's righteously indignant grumpiness strangely early, unable to keep a huge grin off his face throughout.

$5 a Day's broad comedy and inspirational strokes may not look like much on the surface, but it's brimming with indie sweetness, and thoroughly hard to dislike, cliché or not. Walken is its lynchpin, in a perfect cocktail of his most charismatic, wacky, sombre, cavorting, and remorseful leitmotifs that somehow blend into an individual that still feels fresh and heartfelt amidst the Walken tics. A low key but surprisingly enjoyable hidden gem worth dredging up amidst the copious dreck occupying the latter half of Walken's career, if only to see him firing on all four cylinders here.

-6.5/10

The lame pun in my title is a reference to the menu at IHOP where you get a free meal on your birthday, or, as we learn in the movie, where you get a free meal if you show them a convincing fake ID that says it's your birthday.

"$5 a Day" is a cute road movie about a father & son pair of small time con artists who live on $5 a day by committing various harmless scams on their way from Atlantic City, NJ to New Mexico. Their goal is get the father (Walken) to an alternative treatment center because he says he's dying.

It's a standard road movie but with some interesting twists. The big gimmick, of course, is the fun way they scam their way across the USA, much to the straight-laced son's irritation. But his pop is Christopher Walken, and hey who can argue with that. It's definitely Walken's characteristic charm that carries this flick, but there's also a certain sensitivity that gives it a unique flavor which you might not expect from a bro road movie. In the DVD bonus interviews, director Nigel Cole says he really wanted to explore the unspoken emotional side in men, especially an estranged father-son pair who have a barrier of resentment between them. It's the gradual breaking of that barrier that becomes the focus of the story.

Sharon Stone, though featured prominently on the posters and DVD cover, only has a few scenes. But her time on screen is fantastic as she plays a very memorable character, a con artist herself.

Like any good road movie, the story is episodic, with characters entering and exiting never to be seen again. At the same time, secrets from the past reveal themselves and what had initially seemed like a random adventure starts to take shape as an interesting goal-oriented plan.

"$5 a Day" is an entertaining film with a lot of fun moments and of course great acting all around. My only criticism is that it mostly plays it safe (perhaps deliberately) so it's not as edgy as it could be, given the subject matter. But maybe that's what you're looking for: a charming little flick about penny-ante criminals making their way across the country.

I would compare the feel of this movie to "The Open Road" (with Jeff Bridges & Justin Timberlake playing the reluctant father-son travel buddies) or mabye "About Schmidt" (with Jack Nicholson as the retiree going cross country to find his estranged daughter). These are all well-made, sentimental stories that focus on reconnecting with our past and putting demons to rest.