KAJILLIONAIRE, US, 2020. Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, Gina Rodriguez. Directed by Miranda July. 104 minutes. Rated M (Coarse language and sexual references)
Kajillionaire is not your everyday word, not your everyday amount of money. Most of us might be well satisfied with a billion or so!
This is a story of scam artists. Actually, this family is not so much artist as opportunist. They have been at this for more than a quarter of a century – very little to show for it except an addiction to continuing on with scams, no matter what.
It is the father of the family, Robert (the always reliable Richard Jenkins) who actually uses the word. However, this family is way below kajillionaire status, in fact, way below millions. The mother is a hard case, Theresa (an unrecognisable Debra Winger – and a reminder that An Officer and a Gentleman is almost 40 years old). But, the centre of attention for the film is their daughter who is burdened with the name Old Dolio. Old Dolio later explains how she acquired this name – a scam that went wrong, an old man, Old Dolio, who is dying and seemed to about to leave his money to the family. But didn’t. Which means then that the daughter’s name denotes a negative experience. Evan Rachel Wood gives a striking performance.
And negative experiences are what she has experienced throughout her whole life, now aged 26. We first see the family at a bus stop, outside a post office, when Old Dolio suddenly does some acrobatics, enters the post office, has a key, opens a box but moves her arm around to adjacent boxes seeking what she might steal. As it turns out, not very satisfactory. Then Old Dolio is told to go to get a refund on a ticket for a massage. This episode reveals how sensitive Old Dolio is, unwilling to have a massage, dreading the masseuse touching her.
And this is life for the family, bedding down in an adjacent area to a bubbles’ factory, scooping up the overflow bubbles each evening before they settle down. And they owe $1500 to the landlord, always stooping as they pass the open fence where he could be observing them. Old Dolio comes up with a scam, their flying to New York (with Robert so terrified of turbulence that he chatters, uncontrolled, to neighbours, especially Puerto Rico woman, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) to whom he explains everything. The scam is for the parents to take away all the luggage, Old Dolio to report the loss of luggage the company – only to find that it might take six weeks for the cheque to come through (in fact it comes through fairly quickly).
So far, so drab life, so far some ironic comic touches. But it is Melanie who changes everything, especially when the mother speaks to her affectionately, something she has never done with Old Dolio. Which leads to something of a breaking point for Old Dolio, always seen in formless drab clothes, somewhat robotic in her action and speech. But she realises that her parents have done nothing for her – reinforced when she goes in place of another mother, to a parent training session and sees a baby calling on its mother’s chest and breast. It stirs her.
Actually, some redemption is possible for Old Dolio, especially with Melanie taking up her cause, making a list of what has been absent in Old Dolio’s life, taking her home, speaking affectionately, making pancakes.
In fact, there seems to be a reconciliation. The parents buy a range of birthday presents for their daughter, up to her 18th birthday. They invite her to a meal in a top restaurant. They see her home. But, you might guess what they are up to.
There is some kind of resolution for Old Dolio. Melanie does facilitate some change of awareness – with Old Dolio realising that she has no affection for anyone and discovers affection for Melanie. And that is it – we might have to imagine the sequel.
The screenplay was written and directed by Miranda July (short story writer, performance artist, her films Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future). Idiosyncratic to say the least.
Universal
Released 19 December
Peter Malone MSC is an associate Jesuit Media