Welcome to the Rileys takes an interesting premise with leading acting lights playing against type, but ultimately fails to deliver enough dramatic pull.

The movie talent is high-class. James Gandolfini plays against Tony Soprano-type as Doug, a grieving father moved to rescue a teenage runaway who has fallen into a life of stripping and prostitution.

Kristen Stewart plays the young girl Mallory, and she is a potty-mouthed treat, with each curse and bold sexual declaration an unwitting sign of her vulnerability. She’s a world away from Bella in the Twilight franchise, and all the better for it.

Melissa Leo plays Lois, the agoraphobic mother, also against type from recent iron-willed roles in New Orleans-set TV series Treme and The Fighter.

Writer Ken Hixon’s script is unusual, and certainly for the first two-thirds of the films surprising.  It has the feel of how these people would actually interact.

Doug owns a plumbing supply business and is leading a life of quiet desperation. His wife has been a virtual recluse since their teenage daughter died. Their marriage died that night as well, though they keep going through the motions.

While attending a convention in New Orleans, Doug stumbles into a strip joint and falls into Mallory’s lap, so to speak.

Director Jake Scott, son of Ridley, creates a subtle beauty from the faded canvas of New Orleans and all its worldly pleasures. The stereotypes are minimal, and the dialogue sparse.
But ultimately there isn’t enough here to stir the senses. The pacing is slow and the emotions cool, even with Stewart’s firebrand performance.

The story also treads a tightrope on credibility as friendships are formed remarkably quickly in contrived situations, while imagining Stewart as a worldly-wise 16-year-old is a stretch too.

Ultimately the film needed darker shades of black than the grey sensibilities here.

You’ll like these characters, but you won’t care what happens to them.