Sarah Michelle Gellar

Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sam Shepard and Peter O’Brien. Directed by Asif Kapadia. Written by Adam Sussman. 85 minutes. At major cinemas. 14A

Is Joanna Mills a time traveller? Ghost-ridden? Channelling the dead? Or has she just slipped a gear? Whatever the reason, this young and restless Midwesterner has more on her mind than she can explain.

On a road trip to Texas to capture a big account, the hotshot saleswoman for a trucking company keeps picking up a country-and-western refrain, "sweet dreams," no matter what station she dials into. Joanna (Sarah Michelle Gellar) hears voices, too, a man’s voice calling her Sunshine and saying, "I just want to talk to you." Sometimes the voices accompany scenes from her childhood.

A motherless daughter, she was raised by her father Ed Mills and for some reason they’re no longer close. An old friend complains that Joanna is too restless and unwilling to settle down - and what’s more, we see she’s having visions, and she’s a self-mutilator on top of it all. Her friend, Michelle, discovers Joanna with a cut on her arm, inflicted after she draws a switchblade out of her purse and calmly presses it into her flesh.

There’s an angry colleague, too, an ex-boyfriend maybe (Adam Scott), who pursues her to Texas and harasses her in her $25-a-night motel room. She’s rescued by Terry, a man whom the locals treat with disdain, implying he’s a criminal. Given these men in her life, plus Joanna’s long-haired, grease-monkey pursuer (real or imaginary, present or past), there’s an easy supposition that she’s about to be a murder victim. And as is usual for thriller heroines, she goes looking for trouble.

Neither director Asif Kapadia nor screenwriter Adam Sussman seems overly troubled about the need for a resolution to this taut little drama. On this journey, getting there is all the fun.

Thrills are achieved with weird sound effects, like the scream of a speeding bullet, as Joanna enters a fright zone. Fine cinematography in dark browns, blacks, and a sickly teal builds atmosphere, and male actors, including Sam Shepard playing her father and Australian Peter O’Brien as Terry, project enough menace to seem capable of violence or evil as required. Sarah Michelle Gellar does her best to gain our sympathy, but Joanna’s many parts, from scared child to fast-talking entrepreneur, never quite gel into a credible character.

Many elements of The Return are quite sophisticated as past and present converge and Joanna’s pursuer catches her scent. It’s too bad that the plot takes us into irrationality, past the point of no return.