“Galveston” (MA) 

THIS film, with a screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto from his own novel and directed by Melanie Laurent, fits into a small but well-shaped collection of genres – drama, thriller, crime, road movie.

It moves steadily but without undue haste through a plot built on 40-ish criminal Roy (Ben Foster) diagnosed with cancer, sent by his boss Stan (Beau Bridges) on a criminal errand that comes unstuck. As Roy is leaving at speed, 19½-year-old Raquel “Rocky” (Elle Fanning) gets into his car.

Roy lets Rocky come along in his flight westward. Rocky demands a detour to a run-down shack. A girl child is standing outside. A shot is heard. Rocky emerges carrying a sack of clothes, tells Roy that the little girl is her sister Tiffany (played by sisters Anniston and Tinsley Price) and tells Roy to drive, just drive. We suspect some manipulation of truth going on about the sister, but we must wait to see if we’re right.

In a seedy motel near the Texas oil port of Galveston, Roy gets invited to join another crim in a forthcoming job. Rocky leaves Tiffany in the care of the motel proprietor (CK McFarland) while she goes off to turn a few tricks to earn a few bucks. During all this, remember that chain-smoker Roy, diagnosed with lung cancer, has nothing to lose. Romance with Rocky is not on his agenda.

Rocky is a lost soul in search of redemption but without the strength of character or intellect to deal with it if she finds it. She doesn’t. Without preamble, we see her dead body looking very like she has been murdered by sodomy. Elle Fanning’s peformance is commendably mature. And Roy gets arrested, leaving us to wonder about Tiffany’s fate.

The film’s pace may be slow but the strength of its meaty content is inexorable. As a view of life at the underbelly of society, it doesn’t need to be happy or gentle to be effective. Its denouement two decades later may be something of a cliché but that does not diminish its effectiveness.

At Dendy