Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

If I told you this movie was about two lonely wanderers, one a young doctor blaming himself for his wife’s death and the other older one an Elvis impersonator who for twenty years has believed he is Elvis in order to cope with the death of his family, would you think it was much too boring and pathetic to watch? And if I told you it was made in 1998 just in time for the anniversary of Elvis’ death, would you toss it off as only a cult movie?

What if I told you that not all is as it seems and living on the edge of reality can sometimes be just what the doctor ordered? Well, maybe not this doctor, but the Great Physician, if you know what I mean. I mean, look at the cult movie Easy Rider from the sixties. Was that a waste of time? Finding Graceland isn’t, either, and the ending isn’t so depressing.

The doctor, played deftly and ingratiatingly by Johnathon Schaech (If Only You Knew, a brilliant comedy!), and the philanthropic drifter named Elvis, courtesy of an easy-going, drawling Harvey Keitel (remember Vince, Delores’ mobster boyfriend in Sister Act?) on his way to Graceland for a dinner date, meet up at a gas station and the doctor, nicknamed “Burn” by Elvis, takes off with him in his beat-up ’59 Cadillac convertible (the same one that was in the accident where his wife died).

It is obvious that Burn just wants to be left alone in his abject misery and pent-up feelings of guilt and pain, but Elvis sets out to try to heal the doctor psychologically. He questions Burn’s guilt, irritates him continuously at a diner (Burn ended up paying) and at a motel by showing up to play strip poker with girls, bewilders him by talking his way out of a speeding ticket with a hostile cop turned around into believing him to be Elvis, and then rescues him by sending a tow truck for him when his Caddy breaks down. So Burn doesn’t know what to think of this man. He knows everything about Elvis, people treat him like he’s the King, even to the point of freely sprucing up the damaged car engine and body, and Elvis says there’s no such thing as coincidence.

While waiting for his car, he’s invited to join Elvis at a casino where celebrity impersonators would be entertaining. I didn’t recognize them until the credits rolled, except for the Marilyn Monroe impersonator, wonderfully crafted by Bridget Fonda (Monkeybone). Burn finds out she owns the 50ish silver trailer that has passed them on the road many times and they fall in love. Fate? It would seem so.

Elvis determines now to convince Burn once and for all that he is really Elvis and so agrees to perform in his “comeback.” Marilyn, or Ashley, sings coquettishly before Elvis is announced and Elvis, forced onstage by his outraged ‘manager’ Burn, swallows his stage panic to give a truly spectacular Elvis-like rendition of “Suspicious Minds.”

The ending takes place in Memphis, of course. Burn wants to help Elvis find peace as much as Elvis wants to do the same for him. With the permission of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., they go to Graceland and have to sneak in over the fence and across the grounds. What an immaculately-kept, beautiful house. Do you think anyone was home waiting for him? Were they caught on the security cameras?

Yet that is not the final scene because their stories still haven’t played out. It takes two visits to death’s door, one solemn and heartbreaking, the other full of reverent song and people, to do that. Burn and Elvis find the peace that they need so much, but only in the way they can handle it.

Commentary

I watch lots of different kinds of movies and very few impress me enough to take the time to review. I prefer book reviews, strange person that I am. But this movie had something special from the beginning. Not that Keitel looks like the 40ish Elvis we remember, but he definitely made me believe that he believed. It’s a fun, charming fantasy to imagine that Elvis has been on the road for twenty years helping people out of their desperate lives, sort of like a guardian angel. The TV show, Highway To Heaven, with Michael Landon, comes to mind.

Johnathon Schaech was also very into his role. He looked so wounded, like he just wanted to stew in his memories and misplaced guilt (he wasn’t driving in the accident, but remembered it as if he had been) that I would’ve tried to help him, too.

I enjoyed the sweet love story, too. It may have started with Ashley as Marilyn kissing a surprised doctor offering his assistance when she fainted, but clothes stay on (at least in front of her curtain) and it’s something your kids (rated PG-13) and romantics like me could watch. I like gentlemen like Burn who want to get to know me and not just my body.

So yes, I can highly recommend this charmer to romantics, families and Elvis fans. More than his music is played, though, I might add. Still it probably won't work so well for high-strung people looking for violence, special effects and a logical plot and message. You really need to be willing to relax, suspend belief and enjoy the journey of two very different people who need each other more than they realize, in order to find the answers they’re looking for. Directed by David Winkler (not Disney, I promise) and executive produced by Priscilla Presley at an hour and thirty-seven minutes, you may finish watching with the sudden urge to look for your own Elvis at the side of the road!

Some of us are already living on the edge of reality, in a distorted or painful past, wishing we were someone else maybe, and so this movie will speak powerfully to those of us.

Maybe the most important message of the movie is that we can only move on with our lives if we either help others or let them help us along. It’s a risk and irritation at first, maybe even bewildering, but after a while it’ll become our compulsion and redemption.

As I mentioned above, other singers like Joe Cocker and the guy who sings "Walking in Memphis" are welcome additions to the movie, but the real Elvis sings a gospel song I'd never heard before ("Long, Black Limousine"?)and my favorite at the close of the movie, "If I Can Dream." I won't get sappy and include it here, but it's a perfect ending as far as I'm concerned!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older