THE Peanut Butter Falcon takes you on a trip through the swampy humid American south in a sweet tale that ends up overdosing on the saccharine.
Zak (Zack Gottsagen), a young man with Down syndrome, very much resents the fact he has to live in a retirement village because with no family he has nowhere else to go.
When his plan to escape finally succeeds, he hides in the boat of fisherman Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), who is on the run himself after an argument over a fishing patch.
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READ NOWTyler is mourning the loss of his brother and has no wish for a tagalong but eventually agrees to take Zak as far as the wrestling school of his hero Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Haden Church).
Meanwhile, well-meaning carer Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) is hard on their trail, tasked with bringing him back or else he will be sent to an institution even less suited to him than the retirement home.
Directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz wrote this movie for Gottsagen after meeting him at a filmmaking camp several years ago and this collaboration leads to a performance that is the heart of the film.
LaBeouf and Johnson turn a couple of thinly drawn characters into real people, though Eleanor’s role as the sensible realist there to ruin the boy’s fun is an unfortunate cliche.
With a romance side plot added in for good measure, this film’s heartwarming indie shtick unfortunately undermines the genuine message of the story, that all people deserve to be treated with respect and autonomy.
The Peanut Butter Falcon (M)
Directors: Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, Zack Gottsagen
Three stars
In cinemas January 30