''Five Dollars a Day'' (also spelled as ''$5 a Day'') is a 2008 American

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Nigel Cole Nigel Cole (born 1959) is an English film and television director. Career Cole began his career in the 1980s, directing current affairs shows and documentaries for Central Independent Television. Into the 1990s, Cole co-wrote the play ''Sod'' ...

, produced by

Capitol Films Capitol Films was a British film production and distribution company (number 02392790), incorporated on 6 June 1989 and dissolved on 7 May 2013. In January 2006 it was sold to American Mobius Pictures, owned by entrepreneur and film producer Da ...

and starring Christopher Walken,

Alessandro Nivola Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor. He has been nominated for a Tony Award and an Independent Spirit Award and has won a Screen Actors Guild Award, a British Independent Film Award (BIFA), and the Best Actor Award ...

Amanda Peet Amanda Peet (born January 11, 1972) is an American actress. She began her career with small parts on television, and made her feature film debut in '' Animal Room'' (1995). Her portrayal of Jill St. Claire in '' The Whole Nine Yards'' (2000) bro ...

, and

Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...

Plot

Richie Flynn Parker (

) is a seemingly successful man living in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

who has just broken up with his girlfriend Maggie (

). He has also just been fired from his job as a health inspector when he discovers his father Nat ( Christopher Walken), a cheap con-man, has a terminal brain tumor and he wants to see Richie. Richie, believing it's another con, grudgingly goes to Atlantic City to see his father who explains he has been living on five dollars a day, going to extremes to do so, such as constantly calling various radio station contests with different aliases to win things, like concert tickets he can then scalp. Nat shows Ritchie an x-ray of his skull, and asks Ritchie to drive him to

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

to seek a potential cure. The father and son hit the road driving a Sweet'n Low car free of charge provided they get gas at

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

stations along the way. Richie 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 it's his birthday using a fake drivers license (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, Richie finds out that Nat got him fired by telling his boss of an earlier jail sentence, which is later revealed that Richie took the fall for to keep Nat from going to jail for one of his crimes. This almost makes Richie abandon the trip. They proceed to drive to various cities, once staying at an open house for a retirement village. They then go to

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...

, where they meet up with Richie's old babysitter, Dolores (

), who is now a professional model 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 Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author and narrator of films, theatre, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' Cro ...

), whom Nat lent money to start a used car dealership many years back, and whom Richie's mother later ran off with when he was young. Kruger, now owner of a hugely successful chain of car dealerships, and a well established member of the community with wife and family, agrees to give Nat a large sum of quiet money so that Nat does not upset Kruger's plans to run for mayor by embarrassing Kruger regarding Ritchie's paternity. Flush with cash, Nat suggests to Richie that the two of them visit

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

to spend some time together, but Richie 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, Richie runs off with the hush money and sneaks into Kruger's campaign kick-off party to confront him. Not satisfied with how Kruger responds, Richie rushes the campaign stage to announce Kruger's paternity and simulates the return of the hush money. After escaping capture by campaign security, Richie returns to the hotel where he meets back up with Nat. After some discussion, Nat collapses and winds up in the hospital, actually very ill. Maggie shows up after Richie calls her to break the news. They sneak Nat out of the hospital, and Nat takes Richie to a beached boat house near the shore of a desert lake, where the two go

skinny dip Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is '' skinny-dipping''. In both British and American English, to swim means "to move throu ...

ping. Later, Richie and Maggie are shown sitting in a row boat on the lake, scattering Nat's ashes from a makeshift urn consisting of a large

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi wa ...

cup that Nat got for free with a five dollar purchase of gas. The boat begins to sink as they laugh at their circumstance.

Cast

* Christopher Walken as Nat Parker *

as Richie Flynn Parker *

as Dolores Jones *

as Maggie *

as Bert Kruger *

Dean Cain Dean George Cain ( Tanaka; born July 31, 1966) is an American actor. From 1993 to 1997, he played Clark Kent / Superman in the TV series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''. Cain was the host of '' Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' a ...

as Rick Carlson *Mike Miller as Pharmaceutical CEO *Chris Dempsey as Tim Webber *Chris Ranney as Pharmaceutical Rep #2 *Jim Burleson as Orderly

Background

The project dates back to 2003 when

Nick Cassavetes Nicholas David Rowland Cassavetes (born May 21, 1959) is an American actor, director, and writer. He has directed such films as '' She's So Lovely'' (1997), '' John Q.'' (2002), '' The Notebook'' (2004), '' Alpha Dog'' (2006), and '' My Sister's ...

had signed on to direct for

Fine Line Features Fine Line Features (often spelled as FineLine Features) was the specialty films division of New Line Cinema. From 1991 to 2005, under founder and president Ira Deutchman, Fine Line acquired, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flav ...

, but a year later was replaced by John Curran. Three years later Nigel Cole was sitting in the director's chair. ''Five Dollars a Day'' was shot on

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...

film and premiered at the

2008 Toronto International Film Festival 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

.TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP 2008
/ref>

References

External links

* * {{Nigel Cole 2008 comedy-drama films 2008 films Films shot in New Mexico Films shot in Atlantic City, New Jersey Films shot in Pennsylvania 2000s road comedy-drama films American road comedy-drama films Films directed by Nigel Cole Films scored by Alex Wurman 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Squatting in film