There's something inherently fascinating about movies in which actors direct themselves. On some deep, private level, most actors likely believe they'd be better off following their own muses instead of letting some interfering yahoo dictate their movements, but it's rare for an actor-directed film to actually support that theory. King Of The Corner, the feature-directing debut of Local Hero and Crossing Delancey star Peter Riegert, certainly does nothing to boost the case for actors-turned-self-directors. As a director, Riegert seems more interested in giving himself good monologue opportunities than assembling a good film, and as an actor, he's more in control than in character.
Riegert stars as the mildly crabby patriarch of a sprawling family that seems as sheepish, cautious, and uncommitted to drama as he does. His intelligent, respectful, soft-spoken daughter (Ashley Johnson) is deemed "out of control" because she comes home late from a date, while his marriage to Isabella Rossellini is declared to be in crucial danger because she seems mildly irked when he has an affair. His marketing-firm protégé (Jake Hoffman) is apologetically stabbing him in the back, and his irascible father (Eli Wallach, the only cast member who feels entirely present) is talking calmly about his impending death. Riegert reacts to all this with a grumble and an occasional burst of temper, but his emotions are as tepid as his problems, and there's virtually no tension in his low-stakes issues, just as there's little tension in Riegert's slow pacing and long, clumsy takes.
Riegert co-wrote King Of The Corner's script with Gerald Shapiro, working from Shapiro's short-story collection Bad Jews And Other Stories, and the result does feel like a compressed anthology. The story stammers through too many plotlines and too many directions without committing to any of them, at least until Riegert takes the stage for a final tearful, camera-hogging speech. King Of The Corner isn't terrible by any means; some of its ping-pong-match dialogue is evocative, and it's competently constructed and delivered. But with a more ruthless hand at the helm, snipping Riegert's self-indulgences and goading him into taking risks with his character, it might have been memorable. Instead, it's a low-key actor's showreel, harmless and toothless and sleepy. It'd go pretty well with a glass of warm milk.