From the first images of a car junkyard at sunset to the final shots of South Australia's unforgiving outback, Last Ride is a visually captivating and thought provoking film, but the brutal parenting style of its protagonist may alienate viewers.

Hugo Weaving is Kev. He's just committed a crime and he's on the lam, taking his ten-year-old son Chook (Tom Russell) with him. The exact nature of the misdeed is revealed in parts, and it's not until the final piece of the jigsaw is in place that we understand what motivated him.

Kev is the kind of guy who nicks flowers from cemeteries and steals money from his sympathetic old flame Maryanne (an excellent Anita Hegh from TV's Stingers). The problem is that we don't completely understand the reasons behind Kev's bastardry until too late, robbing us of the chance to connect with him for the course of the film.

Kev does love his motherless son, but there are moments where his treatment of Chook is so horrific - physically and psychologically - that it's hard to stomach. While Kev is easy to dislike, ultimately compassion is found, which is a testament to Weaving's fine performance. Opposite him, child actor Tom Russell is good, but not always convincing as the streetwise yet sensitive Chook. Like Russell, the script is also good but not great, and aspects of the plot feel contrived and lack tension.

In his feature-length debut, director Glendyn Ivin - whose Crackerbag won the Palme d'Or for short film at The Cannes Film Festival in 2003 - successfully merges the rugged South Australian scenery into the storyline.

Although Last Ride doesn't quite satisfy, it's still a challenging, handsome film.