Terminally unlucky, flat broke and unhoused, single parent Maben (Wila Fitzgerald) wafts like a tumbleweed into a small Mississippi town with her seven-year-old daughter Annalee (Pyper Braun). Why she is chosen to come to this particular podunk municipality isn’t clear at first, but by and by we learn that Maben has a connection to the place. However, her return is far from joyful considering once she’s checked herself and Annalee into a seedy motel and put the little one to bed, she makes a half-hearted attempt to turn a trick in the car park which goes horrifically wrong when a local sheriff (Shiloh Fernandez), arrests her, rapes her, and then calls his buddies to come over and have a turn. From there, things just get worse, if that’s conceivable.
Meanwhile, in another part of town around the same time, newly released convict Russell (Garrett Hedlund) gets off the bus from prison and is promptly beaten up by local alcoholic redneck Larry (Ryan Hurst) and his brother Walt (Michael Aaron Milligan). Larry has never forgiven Russell for something that also gets revealed in the back half of the film. It seems Russell can’t forgive himself for this, although there’s plenty of absolution on offer from his religious dad Mitchell (notorious God-botherer Mel Gibson, still working on both career and personal redemption it seems). Mitchell offers his son a choice of places to stay: either in a disused property in town or at home with him on the family farm where widowed Mitchell has shacked up with Consuela (Paulina Gálvez), a character who has no distinguishing characteristics apart from an earthy sensuality signalled by her peasant blouse/tiered skirt combo and enthusiasm for cooking.
Indeed, the film is chockablock with minor characters who get two strokes of defining colour before being cast aside, including Larry’s frightened ex-wife and angry teenage son, Mitchell’s tearful ex, and the town’s other sheriff’s deputy, Boyd (Woody McClain), who spends all his time either worrying about his old pal Russell or accusing him of murder. The whole farrago is based on a novel by Michael Farris Smith, who is also a producer which may explain why the script keeps digressing to introduce more badly drawn secondary characters. The direction by Nadine Crocker has all the authenticity of a daytime soap opera. But all the same, there’s no denying that Hedlund and, to a lesser extent, Fitzgerald are pretty good, offering better performances than the film surrounding them deserves.
• Desperation Road is released on 20 November on digital platforms.
