Five Dollars a Day

Five Dollars a Day (also spelled as $5 a Day) is a comedy film directed by Nigel Cole, produced by Capitol Films subsidiary ThinkFilm and starring Christopher Walken, Alessandro Nivola, Amanda Peet, and Sharon Stone. The project dates back to 2003 when Nick Cassavetes had signed on to direct, but a year later was replaced by John Curran. Three years later Nigel Cole is sitting in the director's chair.^[1] It premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.^[2]

Plot

Ritchie Flynn Parker (Alessandro Nivola) is a successful, yet quiet man living in Los Angeles, California with his girlfriend (Amanda Peet). He has just been fired from his job as a health inspector when he hears his father, Nat, (Christopher Walken) a thrifty con-man has a brain tumor and that he is going to drive to New Mexico to seek a potential cure. He grudgingly goes to Atlantic City to see his father who then explains he has been living on five dollars a day, going comedically far distances to do so, such as constantly calling into various radio stations with different aliases to win free things. The father and son soon hit the road driving a Sweet'n Low car free of charge provided they get gas at Chevron stations along the way. Ritchie calls his girlfriend to tell her about his life and the trip, using one of Nat's many free cell-phones with promotional minutes.

After their first stop to eat at an IHOP restaurant for free by Nat convincing them its his birthday using a fake drivers licence (which Nat continues to do at other IHOPs along the way), they stop at a vacant house that is for sale to spend the night, and narrowly avoid being found out by a realtor and some people looking at the home the following morning. The next day over a stolen room service meal from a motel, Ritchie finds out that Nat got him fired by telling his boss of an earlier jail sentence, which is later revealed that Ritchie took the fall to avoid Nat going to jail for one of his crimes. They proceed to drive to various cities, once staying at an open house for a retirement village. They then go to Amarillo, Texas where Nat meets with Ritchie's old babysitter, who is now a professional model, who Nat has a thing for.

They then head to New Mexico so that Nat can collect a small sum of money from an old rival, Kruger (Peter Coyote), whom Nat lent money to start a used car dealership many years back, and whom Ritchie's mother later ran off with when he was young. Kruger, now the owner of a hugely successful chain of car dealerships, agrees to give Nat a large sum of hush money so that Nat does not upset Kruger plans to run for mayor by publicly challenging Kruger regarding Ritchie's paternity.

Flush with cash, Nat begins to discuss with Ritchie about the two of them stopping in Las Vegas to spend some time together, but Ritchie soon realizes that Nat is not his actual father and Nat convinces him that his story about being sick was a ruse to get him to travel with him to New Mexico. Upset with this news, Ritchie runs off with the hush money and sneaks into Kruger's campaign kick-off to confront him. Not satisfied with how Kruger responds, Ritchie rushes the campaign stage to announce Kruger's paternity and his return of the hush money.

After escaping capture by campaign security, Ritchie returns to the hotel where he meets back up with Nat. After it is revealed that Ritchie did not return the hush money, Nat collapses and winds up in the hospital, sick and actually dying. Before Nat dies, he takes him to a beached boat house near the shore of desert lake, where the two go for a swim. Ritchie and his girlfriend are then shown sitting in a row boat on the lake, scattering Nat's ashes from a makeshift urn consisting of a Pepsi cup that Nat got for free with a five dollar purchase of gas.

Cast

• Christopher Walken as Nat Parker
• Alessandro Nivola as Ritchie Flynn Parker
• Sharon Stone as Dolores Jones
• Amanda Peet as Maggie
• Peter Coyote as Bert Kruger
• Dean Cain as Rick Carlson

References

External links

• Five Dollars a Day at the Internet Movie Database