Desperation Road is a mournful film about people sobered and haunted by their traumatic past, searching for a way out of their misery. On the surface, director Nadine Crocker’s film is a thriller, in that a sort of tension builds within the tenuous relationships between characters and heightened circumstances of the narrative. Below that surface, though, is a study of those characters and an intrinsic understanding of their desperation. The screenplay by Michael Farris Smith, adapted from his novel, refuses to give us a tidy representation of any of this, even with the presence of certain contrivances and conveniences. Those exist because this is, after all, a work of drama and fiction, but the characters feel real in the important ways anyway.
It’s the kind of movie that begins in a bad place and only improves in gradations from that point onward. The narrative is divided between two perspectives until an event that brings them together. The first character to get an introduction is Maben (Willa Fitzgerald), who is escaping a bad situation with her daughter Annalee (Pyper Braun), only to find herself in an even worse one. A policeman (Shiloh Fernandez) decides that he will abuse his authority to make her earn avoiding arrest by the only way that could possibly come to mind, and the whole encounter ends with a definitive act of self-defense on her part. That forces her to go on the run once more with Annalee and to cross paths with the other major character.
Russell (Garrett Hedlund) is newly released from prison and looking to go straight, although a run-in with an old nemesis (Ryan Hurst) quickly makes it clear that he isn’t so welcome on the outside. His dad, Mitchell (Mel Gibson), agrees to house him for the time being, but then Maben and Annalee drop themselves into Russell’s orbit. Initially finding refuge at a hostel, the mother and daughter eventually must go into hiding again after the proprietor’s nosiness uncovers the cop’s firearm in her possession, and Maben takes Russell at gunpoint, forcing him to drive her somewhere she’ll be safe. That ends up being Mitchell’s shed, much to his chagrin and his girlfriend Consuela’s (Paulina Gálvez) unconditional helpfulness.
It’s only a matter of time, though, until a revelation reveals how the fates of Maben and Russell are tied to each other. This is the major contrivance of the screenplay, and the movie’s success or failure depends upon Harris and Crocker’s respective abilities to deal with this development. Instead of mishandling it, the filmmakers afford themselves the grace to deal with it head-on, resulting in intelligent characters displaying the wisdom that such a thing could theoretically inspire. This is a lot of dancing around a genuine twist of expectations without revealing what it is, but let us only say that both Maben and Russell must suddenly face a mutual tragedy.
The plot does eventually move into more explicit thriller territory by way of another contrivance of sorts, as the focus briefly moves to a third, less distinctive character, also defined by a different sort of desperation. Guns are drawn and fired, and death is once again a direct result. Through its convincing performances (especially by Fitzgerald and Hedlund, but also from Gibson as the gruffly wise father who wishes he could have done more), Desperation Road elevates itself above the familiar trappings of its climax.
Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
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