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Knoxville gets goofy in 'Daltry Calhoun'

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 04:58 CDT

Daltry Calhoun

By Sheri Linden

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As amorphous as the vague disease that afflicts one of its characters, "Daltry Calhoun" aims for whimsy and poignancy and mostly comes up empty.

Writer-director Katrina Holden Bronson peoples her first feature with quirky small-town characters -- well played by the cast -- but doesn't know what to do with them. The involvement of Quentin Tarantino as executive producer won't forestall a quick segue to video for the latest item in the Miramax fire sale.

Johnny Knoxville brings a gentle, goofy sweetness to the title character, a one-time layabout who has gone legit. Using what he learned from his cannabis-growing experiments, he has developed a specialized hybrid grass seed that has made him the sod king of Ducktown, Tenn. Daltry, who apparently has a passion for golf -- though we don't see him indulging that passion until the film is almost over -- is eager to use his fortune to realize his dream project, a deluxe public course.

Calhoun Industries starts going to seed when the miracle sod proves defective, and all of Ducktown is rooting for the lovable entrepreneur, especially lonely young widow Flora Flick (Juliette Lewis). As he tries to save his empire, a flash from Daltry's penniless past arrives in the form of May (Elizabeth Banks) and June (Sophie Traub). When he last saw them 14 years earlier, May was his teenage girlfriend and June their barely walking baby. Chased from his family by an angry cousin (Beth Grant, in shrill hillbilly mode), Daltry has been looking for them ever since. This central thread, which sets the story, such as it is, in motion, makes no emotional sense. May, who didn't want him to go, also didn't want him to find her. Now the struggling single mom is back because she's dying, but all she tells Daltry is that they need his support while musician June prepares for her Juilliard tryout. She also forbids Daltry from telling June that he's her father.

All this deception serves no discernible purpose, though Knoxville has some nice moments as the smitten, sworn-to-secrecy dad. In the problematic role of May, Banks lends a fiery fragility, but there's only so much an actor can do when stricken with the kind of movie disease whose chief symptoms are dark circles and meaningful glances.

Individual scenes click, particularly those featuring Lewis and one in which Kick Gurry, as the Aussie seed expert Daltry hires, resists the charms of underage June. Newcomer Traub has real-girl appeal as the soulful teen, who appreciates Marty Robbins as much as Wu-Tang Clan. But individual scenes do not a movie make, and "Calhoun" lurches from one to the next with no direction or momentum, relying on oldies to paper the narrative. Tennessee locations lend authenticity to the production, with grass green dominating the design work and widescreen images. If only the story itself had such coherence.

Cast:

Daltry Calhoun: Johnny Knoxville

Flora Flick: Juliette Lewis

May: Elizabeth Banks

Frankie Strunk: Kick Gurry

Doyle: David Koechner

June: Sophie Traub

Dee: Beth Grant.

Director-screenwriter: Katrina Holden Bronson; Producer: Danielle Renfrew; Executive producers: Quentin Tarantino, Erica Steinberg; Director of photography: Matthew Irving; Production designer: Tracey Gallacher; Music: John Swihart; Co-producer: Todd S. King; Costume designer: Mynka Draper; Editor: Daniel R. Padgett.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: REUTERS

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