The Driftless Area (2015)

Pierre Hunter stands on the dusty shoulder of a rural road in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, thumb out, his broken-down car smoking faintly behind him. The sun hangs low in the late afternoon sky, casting long shadows over the rolling hills untouched by glaciers, where ancient forests whisper secrets to the wind. In his arms, he cradles a potted rosebush, its thorny stems a promise for the woman who's captured his drifting heart. Pierre, a college graduate orphaned young after his parents' sudden death, has returned to this small hometown, now slinging drinks at a dimly lit bar off the highway. He's aimless, a dreamer without direction, his life a quiet loop of pouring whiskey amid the forest's encroaching gloom.

A battered pickup truck rumbles to a stop. Shane slouches behind the wheel, his eyes sharp and predatory, a low-level criminal with a smug grin that hides deeper cruelties. John Hawkes embodies the wiry menace perfectly, his voice gravelly as he leans out the window. "Hop in, kid. But it's twenty bucks gas money. Nearest garage ain't far." Pierre climbs in, clutching the rosebush, the cab thick with the scent of stale smoke and something metallic. Shane chats idly, bragging about a "big score" he's hauling, his foot nudging a heavy backpack at his feet--$77,000 in crisp bills from a recent heist, destined for his brother Ned's criminal empire.

The ride sours fast. Shane pulls over abruptly on a lonely stretch, snatching the rosebush with a sneer. "This is mine now. Out." He kicks Pierre to the roadside, peels away laughing. Rage flares in Pierre's chest. He fishes a smooth rock from his pocket--a gift from a scarred woman he'd met at the bar, her face a map of burns, her words haunting: "I could only get the surgery if I ever found a pile of money." With a furious heave, Pierre hurls it. The rock cracks the rear window, Shane swerves, and the truck flips into a ditch on the next curve, metal screeching against earth.

Pierre approaches cautiously, heart pounding. Shane lies unconscious, blood trickling from his temple. The backpack spills open amid the wreckage--stacks of cash gleam like forbidden treasure. Pierre's mind races: greed tempts, but destiny whispers louder. This money belongs to the scarred woman; the rock sealed it. He grabs the bag, tosses Shane's keys into the underbrush, and vanishes into the twilight, the rosebush reclaimed under his arm. Tension coils in the air, fates now knotted tight.

Miles away, in the shadowed outskirts of town, Carrie narrates Pierre's life like a bittersweet lullaby. Alia Shawkat's voice weaves through flashbacks: Pierre as the orphan who never fit, fleeing to college only to boomerang back after his parents' death. Now he bartends, eyes distant, serving truckers under the bar's neon hum. Carrie, his loyal best friend, worries for him, her presence a grounding force in his ethereal drift.

Shane stirs in the wreckage as dusk deepens, groaning, his head throbbing. A kind woman pulls over in her sedan, concern etching her face. "You okay? Need help?" Shane's eyes harden. He feigns weakness, then lunges, shoving her out and stealing the car with cold efficiency--no shots fired, just brute force. Tires spin gravel as he races toward Ned's rental car lot, fury boiling. The money's gone, and revenge simmers.

Pierre trudges through a lush field the next morning, the heavy backpack slung over his shoulder, rosebush in tow. The Driftless Area unfolds in verdant splendor--hillsides dotted with wildflowers, the air crisp with possibility. His boot slips on wet grass; he plummets into a hidden well, icy water shocking his skin, darkness closing in. Panic surges as he thrashes, lungs burning. Then, a face peers down: Stella, ethereal and luminous, her dark hair framing wide, knowing eyes. Zooey Deschanel's portrayal radiates quiet mystery, her naked form from the fire's aftermath now clothed in simple white, as if stepped from a dream.

She lowers a rope, hauls him out with impossible strength, her touch warm against the chill. Pierre gasps, staring up at her beauty. "You saved me," he whispers, awe blooming into infatuation. Stella smiles faintly, enigmatic. "Some falls are meant to happen." He feels indebted, alive in a way he's never known. They walk together through the field, the rosebush now her gift. Love ignites swiftly, their conversations philosophical meanderings on fate and the unseen--Stella musing on houses that burn and lives that linger. Pierre doesn't question her otherworldliness; she's his purpose amid the money's weight.

Unseen forces stir. Tim Geer, a grizzled mentor with Frank Langella's gravitas, watches over Stella from his weathered porch. He knows her truth: she perished in flames, her naked escape a ghost's first step. Tim guides her, fueling her quest for retribution in this liminal space between life and death.

At Ned's rental car company--a squat lot ringed by chain-link and floodlights--Shane bursts in, face twisted. Ned, Ciaran Hinds' imposing crime boss, leans on his desk amid stacks of fake plates and ledgers. Siblings in crime, Ned runs the empire with calculated menace, far sharper than Shane's hothead volatility. Lyle, Aubrey Plaza's libidinous enforcer, lounges nearby, her eyes hungry, body language predatory. "Shane's crashed his rig," Ned growls. "And the bag's gone?" Shane nods, seething. "Some punk with a rosebush. Hit me with a rock." Ned's face hardens. "Find him. Get our money." Lyle smirks, cracking her knuckles. "I'll make it fun."

Pierre slips away from Stella briefly, drawn by duty. In a nondescript trailer on the town's edge, he finds the scarred woman, her face a ravaged canvas of old burns. She gasps at the bag. "The rock... you used it." Pierre nods, throat tight. "You said only if you found a pile of money. It's yours--for the surgery." She weeps, embracing the cash that promises rebirth. Pierre walks out lighter, purpose etched in his step, unaware of the shadows closing in.

Shane's pursuit intensifies. He haunts the backroads, eyes scanning for the hitchhiker. Hauntings plague him too--Stella's ghostly form flickers in his periphery, her voice a whisper: "Why did you burn the house?" Flashbacks assault him: months earlier, on Ned's orders, believing it empty, Shane doused the frame in gasoline at the burned house site--a remote cabin swallowed by night. Flames roared hungrily; he drove off smirking, oblivious to Stella trapped inside, her screams lost to the inferno. She died there, inadvertently, her life stolen by his torch. Now she lingers, a specter demanding answers.

Pierre and Stella deepen their bond in stolen moments. They wander the countryside, hands brushing amid wild grasses. Pierre gifts her the rosebush, planting it by the well under a canopy of stars. "It's for you," he says, voice tender. She touches his cheek, eyes shimmering. "Fate brought us here." Their love feels timeless, the lush Driftless hills a metaphysical playground where past and present blur. Pierre confides in Carrie over drinks at the bar: "She's everything." Carrie eyes him warily. "Be careful, Pierre. Some things aren't what they seem."

Tension mounts as Shane, Ned, and Lyle triangulate Pierre's trail. They stake out the bar, glimpse him leaving with the backpack's ghost--though it's already delivered. Lyle corners a patron, knife flashing. "The kid with the rosebush--where?" Leads point to the fields, the well. Ned orchestrates from the lot, phones buzzing with underworld ties. "No loose ends," he commands. Shane's temper frays; Stella's apparitions grow bolder, her form materializing in his stolen car's mirror. "You killed me, Shane. For nothing."

Pierre senses the noose tightening. That night, alone in his sparse apartment, he pens a will by lamplight, foreknowledge chilling his veins. To Carrie, his battered car. To Keith, his grey felt hat--a nod to their barroom camaraderie. To Stella, his binoculars, for gazing at horizons beyond. He folds it neatly, acceptance washing over him like river mist.

The trio closes in on a foggy dawn, ambushing Pierre near the field. Guns drawn, they herd him at gunpoint toward the well site, the rosebush's new home a mocking sentinel. "The bag, now," Ned snarls, his rental empire's fortune at stake. Lyle leers, pressing close. "Or we carve it out of you." Shane itches to pull the trigger, haunted visions flickering. Pierre, calm as the drifting hills, leads them deeper into the trap--a narrow ravine rigged with his quiet preparations, ropes and pitfalls born of intuition.

Disagreement erupts in the misty trap. Hemmed by sheer walls, panic rises. Lyle accuses Shane: "Your screw-up lost the money!" Shane's eyes blaze. "Shut your mouth!" In a flash, he draws and fires--bullet tearing through Lyle's heart. She crumples, blood blooming dark on her shirt, eyes wide in shock. Dead instantly, caused by Shane's impulsive rage. Ned recoils, cursing. "You idiot!"

Chaos peaks. Pierre bolts for cover behind boulders, drawing a hidden pistol--sourced from bar whispers, fate's provision. Shane charges, firing wildly, bullets chipping stone. "You stole from me!" The shootout erupts in the ravine, echoes thundering like judgment. Pierre's shots clip Shane's shoulder; Shane's graze Pierre's side, pain searing hot. They circle, breaths ragged, the air thick with gunpowder and destiny. Stella materializes faintly, unseen by most, her presence a balm and blade.

Final bullets fly. Pierre and Shane face off across the ravine, eyes locked in mutual recognition of ends. Shane squeezes first--his round punches through Pierre's chest. Pierre staggers, fires back, the shot ripping into Shane's throat. They collapse simultaneously, mutual killers in a crimson pact. Blood pools on the earth, lives ebbing as the Driftless sun crests, gilding the horror.

Shane gasps his last, vision blurring. Stella kneels beside him, vivid now, her form accusatory yet pitying. "Why the fire, Shane? I was there. You took everything." He chokes, regret twisting his face--no answer, just the void claiming him. She turns to Pierre, cradling his head, her touch ethereal comfort. "You were brave. It's over." Pierre smiles weakly through bloodied lips, whispering, "The binoculars... for you." His eyes close, accepted peace in death.

Ned slips away from the carnage, fate leaving him to shadows unspecified, his empire cracked but enduring. Tim Geer arrives later, nodding solemnly at Stella. Carrie discovers the will amid Pierre's effects, tears falling as she claims the car, Keith the hat. Stella receives the binoculars, gazing through them at infinite horizons, the rosebush blooming defiant by the well.

The Driftless Area folds time like parchment--Pierre, Stella, Shane exist in layered states, living and deceased, retribution woven into the landscape's eternal drift. Winds rustle the ancient forests, carrying whispers of intertwined souls, the well a portal to what lingers beyond. No graves mark triumph; only the hills endure, silent witnesses to love, theft, and the great unraveling.

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In the ending of "The Driftless Area," the protagonist, Pierre, confronts the consequences of his choices. After a series of events involving love, loss, and crime, he ultimately faces a pivotal moment that leads to a resolution of his internal struggles. The film concludes with Pierre making a significant decision that impacts his future and the lives of those around him.

As the final scenes unfold, Pierre is seen grappling with the aftermath of his actions. He has been deeply affected by the loss of his love interest, and the weight of his decisions weighs heavily on him. In a moment of clarity, he chooses to confront the reality of his situation rather than escape it. This decision marks a turning point for him, as he embraces the possibility of moving forward, despite the pain he has experienced.

The film closes with a sense of ambiguity, leaving the audience to ponder the implications of Pierre's choices and the paths that lie ahead for him.

As the film approaches its conclusion, we find Pierre standing at a crossroads, both literally and metaphorically. The sun is setting over the Driftless Area, casting a warm glow over the landscape, but the atmosphere is thick with tension. Pierre, played by Zachary Gordon, has been through a tumultuous journey filled with love, loss, and moral dilemmas.

In the preceding scenes, Pierre has faced the harsh realities of his life. He has lost his father, and his relationship with his love interest, the enigmatic and troubled woman named Sara, has been fraught with complications. Sara, portrayed by Aubrey Plaza, has her own demons to battle, and their connection is both a source of solace and pain for Pierre.

As the narrative unfolds, we see Pierre grappling with the consequences of his choices. He has become entangled with a dangerous criminal, played by John Hawkes, who has manipulated him into a series of morally questionable decisions. The weight of these choices has begun to take a toll on Pierre's psyche, and he is haunted by the ghosts of his past.

In the climactic moments, Pierre confronts the criminal in a tense standoff. The setting is dark and foreboding, with shadows dancing across the walls of an abandoned building. The air is thick with anticipation as Pierre realizes that he must take a stand for himself and for Sara. He understands that he cannot continue to be a pawn in someone else's game.

With a surge of determination, Pierre makes a bold move. He confronts the criminal, expressing his desire to break free from the cycle of violence and manipulation. The confrontation is intense, filled with raw emotion as Pierre lays bare his fears and hopes. He is no longer the passive character we saw at the beginning of the film; he has evolved into someone who is willing to fight for his future.

As the scene unfolds, the tension reaches its peak. The criminal, taken aback by Pierre's newfound resolve, reacts unpredictably. In a moment of chaos, the confrontation escalates, leading to a violent clash. Pierre's heart races as he fights not just for his life, but for the chance to reclaim his agency.

In the aftermath of the confrontation, we see Pierre emerge, battered but alive. The sun is now rising, symbolizing a new beginning. He stands alone, reflecting on the choices he has made and the path he has chosen. The emotional weight of his journey is palpable as he contemplates the loss of Sara, who has been a guiding light in his life.

The film concludes with Pierre walking away from the scene, a sense of resolve in his stride. He understands that while the past cannot be changed, he has the power to shape his future. The final shot lingers on his face, a mixture of sorrow and hope, as he steps into the unknown, ready to embrace whatever comes next.

In this ending, Pierre's fate is one of survival and self-discovery. He has faced the darkness within himself and emerged with a clearer understanding of who he is and what he wants. The film leaves us with a sense of ambiguity regarding Sara's fate, as her journey remains intertwined with Pierre's, but ultimately unresolved. The audience is left to ponder the complexities of love, loss, and the choices that define us.

The Driftless Area does not have a post-credit scene. The film concludes its narrative without any additional scenes after the credits roll. The story wraps up with a sense of resolution, focusing on the characters' journeys and the emotional weight of their experiences, leaving the audience to reflect on the themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning in life.

Pierre, played by Zachary Gordon, is motivated to return to his hometown after the death of his parents. He seeks closure and a sense of belonging, grappling with the memories of his childhood and the loss he has experienced. His return is marked by a mix of nostalgia and a desire to reconnect with his past.

Pierre's relationship with Sara, portrayed by Aubrey Plaza, evolves from a chance encounter to a deeper emotional connection. Initially, they bond over their shared experiences of loss and isolation. As they navigate their personal struggles, their relationship becomes a source of comfort and understanding, highlighting their vulnerabilities and the healing power of companionship.

The mysterious criminal, played by John Hawkes, serves as a catalyst for tension and conflict in the narrative. His presence introduces danger into Pierre's life, forcing him to confront his fears and the darker aspects of his hometown. The criminal's motivations are shrouded in mystery, adding an element of suspense as Pierre tries to navigate the threats posed by this character.

The Driftless Area, with its rugged landscapes and small-town atmosphere, profoundly influences the characters' journeys. The natural beauty and isolation of the region reflect Pierre's internal struggles and longing for connection. The setting serves as both a backdrop for their personal growth and a reminder of the past, shaping their interactions and decisions throughout the film.

Upon returning home, Pierre faces significant internal conflicts, including grappling with grief, guilt, and a sense of dislocation. He struggles to reconcile his memories of a happier childhood with the stark reality of his present life. This emotional turmoil drives his actions and decisions, as he seeks to find purpose and meaning in a world that feels both familiar and alien.

"The Driftless Area," produced in 2015, contains several elements that may not be suitable for children or sensitive viewers. Here are some potentially objectionable or upsetting aspects:

1. Violence: There are scenes that depict violence, including confrontations that may be intense or unsettling.

2. Death: The film addresses themes of loss and includes references to death, which could be emotionally challenging for younger audiences.

3. Substance Use: There are instances of drug use and discussions surrounding addiction, which may not be appropriate for children.

4. Dark Themes: The narrative explores themes of isolation, existential struggles, and moral ambiguity, which may be heavy for younger viewers to process.

5. Emotional Distress: Characters experience significant emotional turmoil, including grief and despair, which could be upsetting for sensitive individuals.

These elements contribute to a tone that may be more suitable for mature audiences rather than a family-friendly viewing experience.