Review: ‘Lost in the Sun’ veers off-course in a road saga spread too thin

Arresting desert landscapes and sporadic outlaw behavior don’t solve the problem of the indie drama “Lost in the Sun”: that writer-director Trey Nelson hasn’t built much dramatically on which his two-character road saga can stand.

When shifty-eyed petty thief John (Josh Duhamel) crashes a single mother’s funeral, offering to transport her orphaned boy Louis (Josh Wiggins) to his grandparents’ house in New Mexico, it doesn’t take much to suss out the hidden relationship here.

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What strains credibility is how easily John recruits his reticent 13-year-old traveling companion into being an accomplice in a string of convenience store robberies and car thefts that ultimately turn them into hunted criminals even as they — surprise, surprise — form a tight, particular bond.

Duhamel settles easily into playing a two-bit crook with a vulnerable side, but Wiggins has a harder time making the ups and downs in a curious, grieving kid believable. Despite some scenic territory, there’s just not much to this journey, leaving “Lost in the Sun” feeling like a short story stretched way too thinly toward feature length.

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“Lost in the Sun.”

No MPAA rating.

Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.

Playing: Arena Cinema, Hollywood; also on VOD.