First Love, Last Rites

Transposing the English seaside town of Ian McEwan's original story to the Louisiana Bayou without undue difficulty, Peretz's film has a tougher time fleshing out the material to feature length. Joey (Ribisi) and Sissel (Wagner) spend most of their time making out in a hot, stinky cabin - a spectacle which palls soon enough. He's a Northern college boy on vacation, she's the unlikeliest Cajun you ever heard. Things perk up when her crazy, scary father (Burke) talks Joey into an eel-catching scheme, despite zero market demand. Sissel, meanwhile, takes to boiling his vinyl. There's oodles of atmosphere, but you have to be very very good to get away with this little. Ultimately enervating.