One of the pleasures of a film festival is the fact that every so often, you catch a film that you can immediately tell likely won't attract a large audience, but will find a lot of cult fans. That's certainly the kind of vibe I got from the Canadian independent "Cole", directed by Carl Bessai. The film depicts the life of the titular Cole (Richard de Klerk), a 20-something year-old guy from Lytton, BC, a dead-end white trash town located a few hours away from Vancouver. The family gas station he runs with his sister Maybelline (Sonja Bennett) and her abusive boyfriend Bobby (Chad Willett) is gradually going out of business and life is going nowhere. Cole dreams of leaving his sorry existence and becoming a writer. Things finally look up when he gets into a short story class in a University in Vancouver, and meets Serafina (Kandyse McClure), who he instantly takes a liking to. But Cole's need to take care of his family will make romance difficult for both of them.

Though it may be initially tempting to consider "Cole" a teen dramedy of the Apatow mold, it soon becomes apparent that it is a very different picture. People who expect to know the story beat for beat will find that the narrative takes plenty of surprising turns and is actually much darker and more serious than its subject matter would initially lead one to believe. True, it has the whole 'boy meets girl' set-up, along with the numerous smoking and drinking-prone friends of the main protagonist, such as Cole's bff Frogger (Michael Eisner). But "Cole" at its score is about the main characters' struggling with their surroundings, both figurative and literal.

The film's excels at crafting believable and empathetic people, along with a strong sense of place. The opening scenes excellently convey the remote, almost desolate setting of Lytton, where Cole and his buddies have little to do other than kick golf balls into the local river, while his sister can barely keep the bills in check. Serafina meanwhile is a city girl from a wealthy upper middle class black family, with an excellent, multi-story house and fancy cars. So when their respective worlds cross, things will not always be pretty, as the excellent dinner scene between Cole and Serafina's family illustrates. The struggle of the two to get past their social boundaries parallels the struggle of Cole's sister with her life and her inability to leave the family gas station.

Performances are solid all around and Richard de Clerk really makes for a memorable and sympathetic protagonist. Another standout is Stephen E. Miller as Professor Jackson, Cole's humorous teacher. Still, "Cole" is far from perfect. The secondary characters, though not one-dimensional, certainly don't have the kind of subtlety that the film's central couple does. And some of the turns that occur during the film's third act fall out of tone with the rest of the picture. While "Cole" is never a boring film, it does tend to drag.

Overall, "Cole" is a good movie, an indie gem with a unique voice that will truly surprise those expecting just another romantic dramedy.

Mikhail L. Skoptsov is a staff writer. E-mail him at film@nyunews.com.