The coda abruptly re-configures a tired crime saga into an altogether different kind of story, one that doesn't see redemption as something Roy might achieve for himself, but rather as something that he can give to the people who need it from him.
Laurent's film is gripping throughout. The filmmaker shrewdly frames each scene to convey the characters' loneliness and isolation without being too obvious.
With shadowy imagery that pushes the boundaries of visibility and a mumbly lead performance from Ben Foster that strains the limits of intelligibility, "Galveston" goes past film noir and lands at film murk.
In "Galveston," the always committed Ben Foster boosts director Mélanie Laurent's adaptation of a Nic Pizzolatto novel. It's a grim and brutal picture.
A sort of modern film noir peopled by flawed figures with bleak prospects, one that offers a pervasively downbeat ambience but not much dramatic insight.