BIG SKY

US, 2015, 90 minutes,. Colour.
Bella Thorne, Kyra Sedgwick, Frank Grillo, Aaron Tveit, François Arnaud.
Directed by Jorge Michel Grau.

Big Sky is a melodrama set in the new Mexican desert. While the plot may be basically plausible, there are some unexplained aspects of the screenplay, very little background of the men involved in the abduction, especially the roles as police, and the plans for getting the ransom?

Bella Thorne portrays Hazel, an 18-year-old girl, who suffers from agoraphobia. She lives with her mother, played by Kyra Sedgwick. She has missed out on important aspects of life, confined to the house, seeing therapists and ready to go to an institution, in a special ban, with a compartment where she can hide, lie down with a torch, and a hole. The van picks up several other passengers for the institution.

On the way, there is an attack, masked thugs, and several immediate deaths and the wounding of the mother. It is up to Hazel to go for help and the film focuses on her fears, tentative steps, the difficulties on the way, her meeting an eccentric young man in the desert, her being rescued by a prospecting couple. The thugs are revealed to be police and the brother of one of the policeman, a man who also has mental disabilities and needs tablets.

It all builds up to quite a melodramatic climax.

1. Melodrama? Characters? Mental disabilities? Criminal activity? Touches of heroism?

2. The New Mexico settings, town and homes, the deserts, the expanses, gulches, atmosphere? The musical score?

3. The premises: Hazel and her agoraphobia? Dealing with it, at home, inside, with her mother, the past, the father leaving, 18 and no family support? Therapists? The decision to go to the institution? Packing up, Hazel, nervous, taking the steps, getting into the vehicle, the hole, the torch? Her mother coming with her?

4. The character of the mother, abandoned, love for her daughter, exasperation, going for the ride?

5. The driver, going to the institution, picking up the passengers, the young golfer, the nervous man, the kleptomaniac girl? Driving, conversation? The man and his antagonism, the girl stealing?

6. The hold-up, the shooting, the sudden deaths? The mother being wounded? The masked thugs, the revelation that the leader was the police? The conspiracy, the other police? Jesse and his bond with Pru, Pru and his need for tablets, with the gun, shooting? The plan to abduct the girl, tying her up, a wealthy father, the plan for a ransom?

7. The mother, wounded, sitting in the car, hoping, imagining walking, waking up, Pru, getting the driver’s gun, holding him at bay? Her concern about her daughter, letting her go?

8. Hazel, tentative, making the decision to go, wrapping herself, the tentative steps, the insect and the loss of her scarf? From cactus to cactus? The flashbacks, her mother, tentative acts as a child, the cliff? Her falling down the cliff, injuring herself, binding the wound? The stranger and his bike, drugs, talk, and Aldous Huxley in reading, the bike in parts? Hazel being rescued by the couple, in the hut, prospectors, her story, driving her, handing her up to the police and the van?

9. Jesse, his role, care for Pru, violence, searching for Hazel? The return, the police accomplice, the couple following in the car – the guns, the shooting, the criminals dead, the prospector wounded?

10. Hazel, her achievement, reunited with her mother? The abducted girl being saved?

11. The plausibility of the plot, the characters, the planning of the crime, carrying it out, the ransom?