Adapted from Nic Pizzolatto’s novel of the same name Galveston is a hurricane of a film. It’s emotionally earnest and bold, but there are a few too many eyes of this storm to keep Mélanie Laurent’s English directorial debut from being greater than the sum of its parts.
Forgoing any background, the story starts with professional criminal Roy (Ben Foster) lung cancer diagnosis. But even at 40, cancer is the least of his concern as he’s also been set up by his boss (Beau Bridges) to be taken out during a job. Narrowly escaping death, he also unexpectedly saves Raquel “Rocky” (Elle Fanning), a 19-year-old call girl, and hits the road with her to start plotting his revenge.
Along the way, hopping motels on the way to Galveston, they pick up Rocky’s baby sister Tiffany, becoming her unlikely surrogate parents. But being on the lam has a target on their back, especially by one of the motel managers, Nancy (C.K. McFarland) who immediately spots Roy as a criminal. What follows is Roy and Rocky taking on the world together in the smallest of terms before a violent finale that sends Roy to prison for 20 years.
Laurent stays true to Pizzolatto’s unique style, making Galveston everything and nothing at the same time. It’s a road trip that doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a love story but not a love story. It’s a story of survival where not everyone survives. It creates and destroys and ends on devastating terms twice over.
While Laurent’s adaptation earns some credit, her direction of her ensemble elevates the material.
If you’re in search for the performance of the year, Galveston is a good starting point. Still awaiting distribution, it might be some time before it hits theaters but as far as the festival circuit has seen at SXSW, Ben Foster is a force to reckon with as much as the hurricanes that bookend the film. It’s just a shame the whole film can’t match Foster’s nuanced intensity at every corner like its one-dimensional antagonist and reveals.
Though, that’s a credit to Foster than anything else. He raises the bar high enough that most everything pales in comparison to him on screen. That’s a great problem to have. His character may be too one dimensional and unlikeable for some viewers but for what the performance is supposed to elicit, he’s more than done his job, especially without narration to help.
Laurent’s background as an actress shines through the screen with the performances she pulls from her cast. Fanning’s performance on its own is great as well. Though between this, The Neon Demon and The Beguiled, it seems she’s becoming typecast as tantalizing but innocent starlets. But she works best as the tinder for Foster’s fiery performance. Without their unique chemistry, the seven-minute long final fight scene wouldn’t feel earned. Everything builds off each other but is all grounded in an all-American landscape.
During the post-screening Q&A, Laurent said she didn’t take inspiration from other crime movies. Instead, she studied pictures. In turn, creates a luscious Southern Gothic landscape ideal for this American tragedy. And it bears repeating that this has one of the best long takes in recent memory, externalizing the pain and rage in Foster’s performance. Something choreographed like that doesn’t fall on just one name, but cinematographer Arnaud Potier’s continues to shine as a rising talent.
For a French director taking on such an American story, the story largely sticks the landing even if it’s mostly reliant on the cast
Overall Grade: 7.5 out of 10
Galveston is currently in limited release in the United States.
