John Powers

Probably too neatly, but I didn't mind at all.

That's how ordinary movies are supposed to end.

After the apocalyptic death and destruction of World War II, entire nations struggled to start anew amidst the physical and psychological rubble.

There was a steady outpouring of stories that took place in settings that were barren, stripped down, inhospitable.

the most famous of these was probably Waiting for Godot, whose stage decoration is described thus, a country road, a tree, evening.

Such a landscape is itself a statement about the stark reality of existence, one shared by countless post-war movies and books, whose characters inhabit deserts, empty beaches, mountain fortresses, bombed-out cities, and impoverished villages.

You get a modern upmarket version of this kind of arid landscape in Islands, a teasingly spare, slow-burned drama by German filmmaker Jan Ola Gerste, here working in English.

Set on Fuerteventura, one of Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa, it lures you in like a conventional thriller, then turns into something less predictable.

Looking a bit like Peter Fonda in his scruffy days, Sam Riley plays the quietly sympathetic Tom, a broken-down tennis pro who's ended up on Fuerteventura, a small island that's basically a collection of beaches, volcanic slag, and craggy cliffs.

He gives tennis lessons to the guests of a luxury hotel that in these surroundings looks like the QE2 has somehow docked on the moon.

Although his life might appear enviable, days in the sun, nights of dancing, drinking, and women eager to party, he wakes up with the daily hangover of a man trying to convince himself that purgatory is paradise.

This changes when he starts giving tennis lessons to Anton, the young son of a rich married couple, the sophisticated Anne, that's Stacey Martin, a former actress, and Dave, a jerk businessman who specializes in a kind of bullying friendliness.

Tom enjoys teaching Anton and starts doing the family favors.

Here, after Tom helps them get a better room, Dave, played by Jack Farthing, insists on compensating him.

Anne and Dave are dangerously unhappy, and for those of us raised on double indemnity and body heat, we start waiting for the inevitable torrid sex scene and murder.

And we worry for Tom, a decent guy who Riley gives a very nice vibe.

As he guides them around the island and gets pushed into taking Dave out clubbing, I wondered if he'd never seen a film noir.

Otherwise he'd know he's heading for trouble.

Eventually, that trouble comes.

Dave disappears, the cops are called in, and it turns out Anne hasn't been entirely forthcoming.