Purely Joyful Movie!

i must have seen a different film!!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The King of Marvin Gardens like its predecessor "Five Easy Pieces" by the same director with Nicholson, isn't much of a film. A so called character study film, where nothing happens.Unfortunately I didn't know, otherwise I wouldn't of watched it. Anyway, the opening monologue by David was interesting, but the film was all down hill from there. The miss America pageant scene brought some joy, if only briefly. All the characters were mostly unlikable, Jason especially. Sally was the only one to show any real heart. It was all pretty pretentious, there wasn't anything here.

A 1972 film by Bob Rafelson, "The King of Marvin Gardens" stars Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern as a pair of brothers. Dern plays a fast-talking idealist, Nicholson plays a morose realist. The two gather in Atlantic City, where Dern attempts to convince his brother that an audacious business venture will prove profitable. Nicholson doesn't believe him.The political and social events of the 1960s and 70s eventually became catalysts for disillusionment. Within the space of a few years, a generation of Americans shifted from optimism, hope and idealism to disenchantment and distrust. "The King of Marvin Gardens", its title an ironic reference to one of the more exclusive properties on the Monopoly board game, captures this Zeitgeist well. Virtually every scene features our duo battling a landscape which refuses to actualise any and all dreams, before the film ends with a bloody climax in which our dreamers get shot down. This makes for grim viewing, but Nicholson's quietly engrossing, and Rafelson constructs a number of strong, surreal scenes.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Go Go Tales".

"The King of Marvin Gardens" is an ensemble piece that turns on the collision of four dysfunctional people. Jack Nicholson plays a perennially depressed, bookish "straight" type opposite the "dynamic" and "goofy" Bruce Dern. Ellen Burstyn and Julia Ann Robinson play, essentially, a mother-step daughter team of hookers. None of these characters is compelling and all of them become quite grating in their various ways; Bruce Dern takes the prize as being the most annoying and tiresome of the bunch.The movie is set in Atlantic City and makes frequent use of the more lurid, campy or bizarre aspects of that location. Unfortunately, the antics of the four main actors are mostly forced, mannered and flat. I found myself cringing at the strained quality of the movie as it reached toward inspiring in the audience some sort of artsy, reverse-chic epiphany it was nowhere near attaining.There really is no plot, and almost any scene could be deleted without affecting the remainder of the film...except for the happy outcome that the thing would be that much shorter. I sat through most of this mess but at a certain point I finally succumbed to my urge to walk out and... walked out. It felt really good to say goodbye to "The King of Marvin Gardens."

It's ironically indicative of this movie's theme and the relationship between American culture AND this film that the vast majority of IMDb raters have given this a 6 or 7 (out of 10). Most Americans that actually watch this film will be confused by it. Very strange, maybe, in that it is a truly American movie: American cast, American production, American themes, American sets, American problems, American answers. But, tell me--how do you rate yourself when you look back at that nude in the full length mirror right after you get out of the shower? If you're feeling generous (and you're only rating for yourself), you might get a 6 or a 7, right? Rafelson's early (funnier...haha, couldn't resist that), more critically successful Nicholson vehicle, FIVE EASY PIECES, has some really GREAT moments (like the toast-ordering scene), but ultimately, the pacing is off. There's just not enough there, there. Not so with King of MV. WOW, this is one helluva emotional roller coaster. The much, much underrated and underutilized Bruce Dern gives one of his best two or three performances as Nicholson's manic (American through and through) salesman brother. This riffs on Arthur Miller and all the best dramatic pitchmen roles from the 1st half of the 20th Century. Ellen Burstyn is spot on, as is the other female interest. But the real focus is on the guys. (And just a word about the late, great Scatman Crothers--so so excellent and iconic in this.) And now we get to Jack... ...I think this is arguably his best performance. It is one of the very very few where his eyebrows were nailed down, anyway. His character is so weary, so defeated, so human, you're tempted to think he's a Russian or a Jew or maybe even a Russian Jew. But no, he is a through and through Willie Loman American. And one we so rarely see on the stage or screen--though we all know/have known them. They are that vast minority of reasonable, intelligent, sensitive, fairly strong and honest and wise individuals who just can't take it or who just don't think it's worth the trouble having seen too many people taken advantage of or getting their teeth knocked out. They are sick of what they've seen; they are sick of not being able to toe the mark--even though they know that those expectations are unreasonable. Rare stuff, indeed.BTW, this is NOT a happy movie--fair warning.Bless you, Bob Rafelson--a brilliant, brilliant film that should rest on the shelf next to Renoir and the very best of the 50's British Angry Young Men cinema.