Accidental Texan

➤Rated PG-13
➤Theaters

THIS YEAR’S WINNER of the Texas Independent Film Award, Accidental Texan, adapts Cole Thompson’s 1999 novel Chocolate Lizards, a story about a Harvard boy who finds himself mixed up with West Texas wildcatters ­hoping to stave off bankruptcy.

Erwin Vandeveer (Rudy Pankow) thinks he’s made it big. He’s recently left the Ivy League and landed his first leading role in a big movie. But after one day on the job, disaster strikes, and Erwin gets fired. On his long drive home, he gets stranded in a small Texas town without any money, too ashamed to call his parents.

Faye (Carrie-Anne Moss), a kindly diner owner, and Merle (Thomas Haden Church), a rough-around-the-edges oilman, decide to look after the struggling kid, but it turns out Merle needs some help of his own. Merle faces foreclosure on his oil rig, so Erwin uses his acting skills to bluff the banks long enough for Merle to find the black gold he knows is down there somewhere.

In Accidental Texan, the characters struggle to find the right place to drill, but the filmmaker struggled to figure out what kind of movie he was making. Accidental Texan has the traits of a tried-and-true family movie. It has humor and romance, and it pretends to examine a young man’s need for a mentor and an older man’s need for purpose. But the Merle character uses rough language that feels at odds with the tone of the rest of the movie. Accidental Texan is not poignant or realistic enough to be an adult drama. Instead it seems like a goofy made-for-TV movie with cussing. This lightweight comedic drama is neither funny enough nor dramatic enough.

After spending 105 minutes watching Accidental Texan, you won’t feel like you’ve struck it rich.