King of California
16-year-old Miranda has been abandoned by her mother, and has dropped out of school. She is supporting herself as an employee at McDonald's while her father, Charlie, resides in a mental institution.
When Charlie is released and sent back to their home, Miranda finds the relatively peaceful existence she's built for herself completely disrupted. Charlie has become obsessed with the notion that the long-lost treasure of Spanish explorer Father Juan Florismarte Torres is buried somewhere near their suburban California house in the Santa Clarita Valley. Armed with a metal detector and a stack of treasure-hunting books, Charlie soon finds reason to believe that the gold resides underneath the local Costco, and encourages Miranda to get a job there so that they can plan a way to excavate after hours.
Initially skeptical, Miranda soon finds herself joining in Charlie's questionable antics in an effort to give him one last shot at accomplishing his dreams.
After becoming involved with some swingers, Miranda then helps Charlie break into the Costco. Once inside, they drill through the floor and then into a very smelly underground river. Charlie steals some scuba diving equipment, dives into the river, and then imaginably finds the gold. He leaves Miranda a tag and tells her not to lose it. When the police arrives at the Costco, Charlie is seen to carry a small but heavy chest, hiding from the police. He then jumps into the river again, where he pursues further, sees a bright light and swims towards it. Miranda's voice from the off says that his body was never found, although Charlie is seen still alive swimming in the river after that. The next day, Miranda visits Costco and finds the product the tag belongs to, a dishwasher, buys it and brings it to the beach in her old car. When Miranda opens the dishwasher, she is seen bathed in a golden glow and a slow smile spreads across her face, a strong indication that Charlie has cached the gold inside the dishwasher, although the gold is never actually shown to the viewer.
There is a theme of ambiguity/duality that runs through the movie, regarding what is real and what is imagined. The theme is underlined by the recurring line "you could look it up." but a source to look in is not given. While Charlie's judgement is in question for the whole story, he does seem to accurately perceive the nature of Miranda's co-workers to be swingers, as well as the sexual interest by the female police officer. As Charlie is faced with poverty, the losses of his house, mind and jazz career (his last friend & band member has cancer), he focuses on one last adventure with his daughter and gives her his treasure - his dreams - which are perhaps what she sees in the dishwasher he tells her to get.
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