The Elephant King is the story of two different sides of the same coin American broth-ers, set amidst the ex-pat splendor and horror of southeast Asian tourism. Chiang Mai, a small city in the northern region of Thailand near the borders of Myanmar, Laos, and China is much scaled down version of Bangkok, but with the same distractions aimed at slaking the lust for exotic. The director, Seth Grossman clearly knows the lay of the land and wants to tell a familiar tale of the lost souls who, because of their status as middle class Americans have the luxury of seeking to free themselves at the expense of others. The film is sometimes moving and sometimes a bit off the mark, but for the most part it achievesit's ends, unflinchingly putting us into the position of objectifiers.

The film opens with the image of Jake Hunt (Jonno Roberts) a white male foreigner cavorting up and down and around the streets of Chiang Mai. He's got a nerdy, withdrawn brother who washing dishes somewhere in New York and still lives at home with their mother Diana (Ellen Burstyn) and father Bill (Josef Sommer). Seems Jake has skipped town on a false grant application and Diana (Elllen Burstyn) is cringingly trying to beg, hector and blackmail him into returning. Bill, on the other hand, wants to know what the girls are like. Ollie (Tate Ellington) the brother seems to be caught in between these daffy forces of dysfunction.

Ultimately, after a not so rousing dinner party where Ollie's blind date is abandoned when Jake telephones, Ollie is dispatched to bring wandering Jake home, except Jake has a different plan. He wants Ollie to come and join him in shangri-la. His Thai para-dise consists of alcohol, drugs, prostitutes and kick boxing to make money. He even has the baby elephant of the title wandering around the swimming pool of his apart-ment/hotel.
Amidst all of this chaos floats, Lek (Florence Faivre) who is so blindingly beautiful it becomes a bit of a distraction. All I could think of was what magazine cover I had seen her on and when was her next runway show. It's not that she's bad, but she is out of context in the film, as good as she is. Ollie falls for her, she breaks his heart, you've seen that part before. Will Jake go home? Will Ollie stay? What will happen to Lek?

What is really good about the film is not so much the story of the two brothers. I was anticipating yet another young men coming of age, it's all about the Americans internal struggles sort of story. And this is a part. However, even though Lek is really fashion model in disguise, she is able to convey the contempt and fear of her position as a woman who has really very limited options. She lives with her bed ridden mother, who she presumably has to take care of. She goes to school and falls asleep in class be-cause she works at a bar all night to earn money. She picks up extra on the side by flirting and "taking care" of tourists like Ollie.

Ultimately the ending of the story is a little tidy and somewhat unrealistic in that it prob-ably gives more power to the Thai people than they actually have in these types of situ-ations. It does achieve it's ends by reminding us of what we all learn about wandering which is that no matter where your run to, that baggage that you thought you left behind or got lost in flight will show up eventually.

Opens in Los Angeles October 24, 2008.

Written and directed by Seth Grossman; director of photography, Diego Quemada-Diez; music by Adam Balazs; produced by Emanuel Michael, Tamar Sela, Tom Waller, and Ryan Brooks. Released by Unison Films. Running time: 90 minutes.

With:Ellen Burstyn (Diana Hunt), Tate Ellington (Oliver Hunt), Florence Faivre (Lek), Jonno Roberts (Jake Hunt), and Josef Sommer (Bill Hunt).