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More of an actors’ showcase for Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch to get in some sharp practice than a cogent drama, “The Motel Life” is a warts-and-all indie effort that comes up short. Adapted from Willy Vlautin’s novel about two low-life brothers struggling to subsist, the narration-heavy script lurches along in flashback fits and cartoon-animation asides.
Sibling producers-turned-directing-duo Gabe and Alan Polsky preside over the troubled story of Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan (played by Hirsch and Dorff respectively). Abandoned as boys, the adult brothers share a symbiotic relationship born of Jerry Lee’s dependence on his ever-loyal brother Frank.
Jerry Lee lost a leg to a train when he was a kid. Frank is an alcoholic. Their luck goes from bad to worse when Jerry Lee accidentally runs over a boy with his car in Reno, and decides to shoot himself in his bad leg as punishment. Jerry Lee’s hospital stay has to be cut short for the brothers to go on the lamb to Elko where Frank imagines rekindling the flame with the only girl who ever told him she loved him.
Frank dreams up surreal stories that he tells Jerry Lee to help sustain his brother’s desire to live. Frank’s imaginative narratives about fighter pilots and hot girls get zippy animated sequences that help distract from the film’s limited narrative range.
Still, Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch hold your interest with convincing portrayals of good-hearted men with little to believe in other than one another. There’s nothing glamorous or ambitious about them.
Rated R. 85 mins.
