A Nurse (Sonya Eddy) sits at the bedside of a dying man, reading his journal at the opening of the raucous Frank & Penelope. We don’t know who this man is, we don’t know what landed him in the hospital, but the nurse subsequently narrates a yarn that mixes genres, delivering a brash and bloody flick that works more than it doesn’t. Sean Patrick Flanery writes and directs from an original idea by John Thaddeus that echos movies like Wild at Heart, True Romance, and a little bit of From Dusk Till Dawn while striking out in a new direction. Again, it works, mostly.

With the framing device in place, the film focuses on Frank (Billy Budinich) who sits in a strip club late at night. His life has just been flipped on its head after finding his wife with another man. Dazed and brokenhearted he watches as Penelope (Caylee Cowan) attempts to entertain him with a lap dance and small talk. The spark is evident between the two and, after saving her from the brutish club manager, Frank throws Penelope in his car and peels out for the open road. You would think that the desert is the last place that trouble would find these two starcrossed lovers but, in fact, they land right in it. Duly warned by the local Sheriff (Kevin Dillon), they are told to gas up and keep driving through the long stretch of highway whose only notable feature is a rundown motel. I’ll give you one guess where they end up.

Arriving at the rundown expanse of a motel, Frank, and Penelope get a room. The front desk man and tow truck driver Cleave (Brian Maillard) checks them in and alerts the complex to their presence. Over at the bar is Mabel (Donna D’Errico) who offers free drinks to anyone willing to confess a sin. Then there’s Cookie (Charley Koontz) who lumbers about in a blood-stained apron. Running the whole operation is the mysterious Chisos (Johnathon Schaech). Managing the operation from his relatively palatial house on a hill, Chisos breezes around the property dressed in a billowy white outfit spouting quasi-religious thought nuggets.

Like an unplanned road trip, Frank & Penelope relishes the journey more than the destination and feels just as unpredictable at times. This can be good, but with all of these fun characters in place, you eventually want to see the expectations tightened up a bit. We know we love Frank and Penelope, we know they are in danger, but the film takes its Texas time covering plot points. This ultimately robs the film of a harder, grittier edge. Flanery‘s script is good but would have been better if the recipe was boiled down a bit.

Performances across the board are solid, further selling the melodramatic pathos and purple prose. Budinich and Cowan are charismatic leads with substantial chemistry. These two are all in on these performances and their work is noteworthy. Another surprise is D’Errico as Mabel. Despite looking far too beautiful to be working at a seedy motel in the desert, she creates a menacing character that carries weight on screen.

Ultimately, Frank & Penelope is a pulpy tale of love against all odds. We have the broken man, the striper with the heart of gold, and a rogue’s gallery of desert dwellers with a nasty secret. We get moments of bloody mayhem and lurid romance. We get peril and mystery. It’s all here in one big road trip to hell and back. If you can slow your roll, relax and let the adventure unfold, you will be pleasantly surprised.

6 out of 10