Safelight - D

Rated R, 84 minutes

The dull, generic teen drama "Safelight" is in need of some spark to give it some life. In spite of its attractive leads, it's a story you've seen so many times before you could probably guess what will happen. A high-school student ("X Men Days of Future Past's" Evan Peters) tries to help a troubled runaway ("Far From the Madding Crowd's" Juno Temple) escape from the clutches of her psychotic pimp (Kevin Alejandro). In the process, they discover a renewed sense of possibility as they go on a road trip to photograph lighthouses along the California coast. Directed and written by Tony Aloupis ("Sugar"), this cookie cutter teen romance in which an unlikely pair - this time the nerdy teen with a limp and the young prostitute - go off to take pictures of lighthouses in hopes this will give some sense of self-discovery. What they really need to find is an original, revelatory script and direction that loses its way early on; and for the record its premise, driving around and looking at those pretty lighthouses, isn't really given that much footage. Peters and Temple are both handsome, bland leads with little chemistry, and even more they can't overcome the many cliches in the script that seem to suffocate the story: the mean boys, mean pimp, the ill father, the dead brother, the even meaner sisters, all of which add up to very little. The picturesque light houses, some cool 70's cars and a wisecracking Emmy and Golden Globe winner Christine Lahti, aren't used near enough to make a difference in "Safelight's" sleep-inducing, talky storyline that meanders, especially those dreary father-son conversations between Peters and his screen dad Jason Beghe, all over the place until it reaches a laughably staged climax with Alejandro's evil pimp. Lighthouses are meant as a source of guidance and help, and ironically the awfully unsatisfying and just awful movie "Safelight" could use a big helping of it in terms of originality, story and characters.