With “King of the Corner,” Peter Riegert, an accomplished portrayer of seemingly ordinary men, has created a perfect fit for himself and a raft of other fine actors.
Gerald Shapiro wrote with Riegert this warm and wise comedy of middle-age malaise, and Riegert directed it with the same unpretentious incisiveness he brings to his acting.
Like countless other men in their 40s or early 50s, Riegert’s Leo Spivak has achieved mid-level success, in his case at a Manhattan marketing and advertising firm.
His life has fallen into a routine, commuting to his Westchester home, a spacious turn-of-the-last-century residence he shares with his down-to-earth wife Rachel (Isabella Rossellini) and their daughter Elena (Ashley Johnson).
Leo, in a word, is a mensch. Every several weeks he flies to Arizona to visit his feisty but frail father Sol (Eli Wallach), now living in a nursing home because his longtime girlfriend, Inez (Rita Moreno), can no longer care for him.
Sol, who emigrated with his parents from Lithuania at age 12, went to work at 14 and supported his late wife and Leo as a traveling salesman with a wholesale line of children’s clothes.
Sol hated his work, and Leo is less than thrilled at having to test products with focus groups. Sol, however, managed to work out an enjoyable retirement and has retained his hardscrabble grasp of human nature.
What Leo cannot escape is the impact of his father’s mortality, and “King of the Corner” reveals how Sol’s dwindling life span starts nudging Leo into self-discovery, into a growing awareness of how little he knows of what he really wants out of life or how to get it.
“King of the Corner” HHH
Midlife crisis: A delightfully low-key movie reveals that when decent people live a life without much reflection, they do so at their peril.
Rated: R for language, sexual references
Now showing: Varsity Theater
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