A contemporary “Paper Moon” might look a bit like Miranda July’s “Kajillionaire.”
Staying afloat by stealing, scamming and lying, the Dyne family cracks when an outsider – not unlike Madeline Kahn – slides in and upsets their delicate balance.
Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger) need their 26-year-old daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), to steal from post office boxes, distract at stores and offer a soothing voice to strangers but don’t think about her needs.
When the three meet an optical shop worker, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), the scales are tipped. She takes Old Dolio under wing and gives her what the other two haven’t.
Without her, mom and dad lack a secret weapon.
July shows more scams than she really needs to, particularly since we don’t know much about the Dynes’ background.
But Melanie is much easier to peg. She deceives, too, but hasn’t made a career out of it. For her, the odd Dynes-namic is too tantalizing to ignore. Rodriguez brings life to a routine that almost seems boring.
July, however, gets so enamored with her charges she doesn’t allow them time to breathe. Theresa, for example, looks like an older Old Dolio, but doesn’t have any of the skills, just a limp.
Wood, however, never fails to impress. Whether she’s executing parkour moves or bending backwards to avoid being seen, she’s always imaginative. When she’s put into play with Melanie, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen. Unfortunately, it takes too long to get her in the mix.
Once she’s there, “Kajillionaire” begins to pay off.
Rodriguez is the jackpot, largely because she’s able to go with the flow and keep her new friends.
Jenkins and Winger are fine, but they don’t change. They’re determined to look at life in the short-term, not the long-term, which makes the payoff hardly unexpected.
As a director, July knows how to attract interest. She just can’t retain it.
“Kajillionaire,” thanks to the actors, is as alluring as a monogrammed Bible. Too often, however, it’s not worth the investment.
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