Starring Jessica Chastain, Dermot Mulroney, Rupert Friend, and Chazz Palminteri. Out on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, April 26.

Based on a story by E.L. Doctorow, the title character in Dan Ireland’s Jolene is a restless southern girl whose destiny is defined by a series of self-serving affairs. At first, our heroine seems headed for a life of beer cans, trailer parks, and domestic boredom. But Jolene—whose survival skills have already put an abusive childhood behind her—has other plans.

Jolene is portrayed by Jessica Chastain, a stunning redhead with the old-school looks of a classic movie star. It’s no wonder that men keep making her offers she can’t refuse. At 15, she marries a sweetly naive nerd named Mickey (Zeb Newman). Devoted to his new bride, Mickey commits suicide after discovering that Jolene is having an affair with his sleazy uncle (Dermot Mulroney). Sentenced to a stretch in a home for emotionally unstable girls, Jolene escapes by submitting to a love-struck youth worker (Frances Fisher).

Hitting the road, Jolene abandons common sense to hook up with a series of ill-fated lovers. There’s Coco (Rupert Friend), a tattoo artist who deals cocaine on the side. There’s Sal (Chazz Palminteri), a Vegas mobster with an urge to play sugar daddy. And, finally, there’s Brad (Michael Vartan), a rich businessman whose religious fervour masks a violent temper.

I’ve always been a fan of Ireland—who was born and raised in Vancouver before going on to make such heartfelt films as The Whole Wide World and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. So I wish I could afford to be charitable. But despite Chastain’s undeniable presence, the story falls flat. After a while, I felt like I was being forced to watch a bunch of stupid, selfish, losers screw up their lives. The good news? Eventually, they all go away. Just not soon enough.