Actor-turned-director Mélanie Laurent continues her impressive directorial streak with her English language debut “Galveston”, adapted from the novel by “True Detective” creator Nic Pizzolatto. Fluidly moving through a number of genres, including crime thriller and on-the-run road film, Laurent creates a quiet and introspective character study, getting highlight performances from Ben Foster and Elle Fanning. While not exactly the hard-boiled thriller that it’s being sold as, “Galveston” shows Laurent evolving as a dramatic director and makes the case for Foster as one of the premier actors working today.
Taking place in the 1980s, Foster’s Roy is a hard-drinking ex-con enforcer for a local crime boss Stan (Beau Bridges, in what amounts to a cameo) in New Orleans. After getting a fatal diagnosis, Roy is sent on a night job to collect money for Stan. Told not to bring any guns, it’s quickly obvious that Roy is being set up. Managing to escape, he finds Fanning’s call girl Raquel tied up in the house and leaves with her. As she was presumably was going to be killed, as well, Roy and Raquel set out to escape Stan, believing Galveston, Texas as a possible hideaway. On the way, however, Raquel requests that they stop in Spring, Texas, kidnapping her three-year-old sister Tiffany from her abusive stepfather. Eventually making their way to a cheap motel by the ocean, Roy, Raquel, and Tiffany attempt to create a semi-normal existence as Roy battles his alcoholism and illness, while Raquel falls back into prostitution.
With that plot in mind, “Galveston” has all the trappings of a banal redemption film, with Foster’s Roy learning benevolence through saving Raquel from her lifestyle. While there are traces of that sentimentality present, especially in the films closing, Laurent and first-time screenwriter Jim Hammett purposely eschew sympathy for Roy throughout most of the film. With his hard drinking and violent lifestyle, Roy is notably unsympathetic. A drunken encounter with an ex-girlfriend near the middle of the film, in which she recounts their awful life together, clarifies just how callous he is.
The same goes for Raquel, whose turn to prostitution is necessitated by her escape from a small town life. As her backstory is slowly filled in while the film progresses, Fanning plays what could be a cliched part straight, oscillating between the naivety and weariness expected from someone so young who has seen so much. She’s both unapologetic with her choices and dependent on Roy to provide. When her history is finally revealed, in a pretty incredible motel-room monologue late in the film, Fanning truly breaks out, revealing a character whose previous abuses have essentially predetermined her life, no matter what choice she makes.
Foster, as well, is unsurprisingly brilliant in his portrayal of Roy. An under-appreciated actor, who has been delivering great performances for over a decade now, seems to finally be having a moment, with this and Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace” earlier this year. “Galveston” capitalizes on his quiet demeanor, hinting at a hidden rage that erupts suddenly towards the end. Laurent, a great actor in her own right, often allows Foster and Fanning room to act opposite each other, choosing to shoot uninterrupted medium and wide shots to highlight their performances. When Roy does finally snap and seek revenge towards the end of the film, Laurent chooses to film the entire sequence in a pretty stunning, and somewhat showy, one-take. While it breaks with the mise-en-scéne that the film has previously established, it’s a pretty amazing sequence in its own right.
Yet Laurent’s push towards connection over redemption between Roy and Raquel helps ground the film. While Foster and Fanning are given big moments to play, including a somewhat cliched punching the wall scene for Foster, the director often chooses to emphasize the quiet build of their relationship. When Laurent expands her canvas, jumping into the present in the film’s final moments, however, she takes on a bit too much for such a short film (It only runs 90 minutes). A late appearance by Lili Reinhart (“Riverdale“), playing an adult Tiffany confronting Roy, helps to cement the film’s themes but, as Roy monologues about the importance of their time in Galveston, but the nuance that was present in the 1980s section is jettisoned, as if the audience couldn’t be trusted to make connections themselves. It’s a rare misstep in such a confidently made film, even if Foster’s delivery helps smooth over much of the thematic exposition.
What we are left with is far from a perfect film, but Laurent is a confident director who elevates the pulpy plot of Pizzolato’s novel into a unique reflection of characters on the margins of society. It, also, probably doesn’t hurt that she has Foster and Fanning at the top of their game to deliver the material. [B]