Reviewed by Robert Pardi

The Louisiana languor is palpable and the stars are sexy as all get-out, but it’s hard to figure out what kind of film director Peter Masterson though he was making. Bayou mystery? Ambling road picture? Second-chance melodrama? All of the above?

Sleepy little Lost Junction is a place of many secrets. Recently widowed Missy

Lofton (Neve Campbell) takes a risk, picking up stranded drifter Jimmy McGee (Billy Burke) and offering him a place to stay while his car is fixed at a local garage. Jimmy is deeply suspicious of the kindness of strangers, but can’t stop himself from falling for the seemingly demure housewife. Missy is equally smitten, but she has a hidden agenda and big secret: She may have killed her abusive husband, Doc (Joel Miller), by bashing his head in with a skillet. Doc's corpse is stashed in the trunk of her car, and Missy and her New Orleans-based accomplice, Porter (Charles Powell), are about to collect $322,000. Missy asks Jimmy to pose as her ailing cousin, who's in need of a kidney transplant, and browbeats the bank manager into allowing her to withdraw the money. But he alerts the sheriff to the suspicious situation. Jimmy, meanwhile, confesses his won dark secret: He accidentally crippled his friend, Matt (Jake Busey), while horsing around at a swimming hole. Porter isn't the least bit pleased to meet Missy’s new love; he was planning to rip Missy off for all the cash and sees Jimmy as a possible obstacle.

Jeff Cole's screenplay is loosely structured around some haphazardly inserted flashbacks and plays with the tropes of Southern Gothic literature as though they were grist for pulp-mill of second-rate detective fiction. Ultimately, the mix just doesn't gel.

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• Released: 2003
• Rating: R
• Review: The Louisiana languor is palpable and the stars are sexy as all get-out, but it’s hard to figure out what kind of film director Peter Masterson though he was making. Bayou mystery? Ambling road picture? Second-chance melodrama? All of the above? Sleepy… (more)

Cast & Crew

Neve Campbell Missy Lofton

Billy Burke Jimmy McGee

Jake Busey Matt