Nothing Sentimental About ‘Joe the King’

High school yearbooks are filled with guys like Joe Henry, the teenager at the troubled heart of “Joe the King.” He would be the one with a gray square reading “picture not available” where his graduation photo should be. The one with nothing listed under “Activities.” The one who writes defiant adages under “Motto” like “It’s better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.”

Ruling in hell would seem to be a legitimate aspiration for this 14-year-old delinquent (a fine Noah Fleiss), who--from the evidence at hand in Frank Whaley’s earnest screenwriting and directing debut--has been groveling there since infancy. He is forever tardy at school, where he must slink under the shadow of his janitor father (Val Kilmer), an alcoholic who owes money to half the town. When not being abused by his teachers or taken to task by his parents, he is hit up for his dad’s debts and chewed out by the manager of the town restaurant where he is illegally employed.

Joe’s only consolation comes from his ex-con work mate (John Leguizamo) and his older brother Mike (Max Ligosh), who is of an age when he would rather be hanging out with his friends. Left to his own devices, Joe takes to stealing everything from a box of Yodels to precious jewelry. Under the circumstances, the only questions left to the viewer are when will the final shoe drop and how.

Whaley, a much undervalued actor, populates his semiautobiographical story with a credible assortment of townies. He resists the tendency of first-timers to stuff his characters’ mouths with poetic flights of fancy, as well as the temptation to fashion some heroic deus ex machina from Joe’s guidance counselor (Ethan Hawke).

If anything, “Joe the King” is antisentimental to a fault. Whaley is so determined not to pander, he all but clobbers us with Joe’s sufferings. From an over-baked prologue in which a 9-year-old Joe is spanked by a venomous teacher (played by Camryn Manheim like something out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales), “Joe the King” trots out the tribulations with an overemphatic hand. By the time Joe reaches into the fridge to draw some succor from a carton of milk, you know the milk has to be putrid.

Much will be made of Kilmer’s dissolute turn (look, he let his belly go!) but it’s all surface: He never entirely gets down with the role. Karen Young is a revelation. As Joe’s beleaguered mom, she telegraphs a spectrum of feelings in a single glance that easily transcends the monochromatic landscape surrounding her.

* MPAA rating: R for language and abusive situations concerning a child. Times guidelines: The language is strong but the violence is mild.

‘Joe the King’

Noah Fleiss: Joe Henry

Val Kilmer: Bob

Karen Young: Theresa

Ethan Hawke: Guidance Counselor

A 49th Parallel Productions/Forensic-391 Films/Lower East Side Films production; distributed by Trimark Pictures. Director Frank Whaley. Producers Robin O’Hara & Scott Macaulay and Jennifer Dewis & Lindsay Marx. Executive producer Janet Grillo and John Leguizamo. Screenplay Frank Whaley. Cinematographer Michael Mayers. Editors Melody London and Miran Miosic. Costumes Richard Owings. Music Robert Whaley & Anthony Grimaldi. Production designer Dan Ouellette. Art director Mylene Santos. Set dresser Bernadette Jurkowski. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

At selected theaters.