Haroula Rose's first feature takes a while to find its footing. In that sense, her sympathetic, yet unvarnished adaptation of Bonnie Jo Hamilton's 2011 novel reflects the journey to independence of Margo Crane (newcomer Kenadi DelaCerna, a raw, yet compelling presence). It's 1977, and the 15-year-old lives on the shores of Michigan's Stark River with her Native American father, Bernard (Tatanka Means, son of activist Russell Means). Her white mother, Luanne (Lindsay Pulsipher, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) abandoned them the previous year "to find herself." In the interim, Margo has learned to hunt and fish, like her heroine, Annie Oakley, and her white cousins, except the Murrays look down on their lower-class tenants. Cal (Coburn Goss), the patriarch, took advantage of Luanne when she was young, just as he takes advantage of Margo early in the film. If she doesn't protest, she's too young and too inexperienced to understand exactly what's going on. When his daughter catches Uncle Cal in the act, he blames his victim.
A combination of anger and easy access to firearms leads to one death and one injury, and Margo takes off in her grandfather's rowboat to evade the authorities, track down her mother, and make a new life for herself. She starts by staying with two shady poachers before hitchhiking in the direction of Luanne's last known address. She next meets Will (Ajuawak Kapashesit), a Cherokee graduate student who gives her a ride, shares his peyote, and encourages the high school dropout to finish her education. She confesses that she doesn't know anything about her tribal heritage. If he's a positive influence, for the most part, her age makes their intimate scenes less romantic than Rose may have intended, since Margo is a year short of Michigan's age of consent, leaving Will open to a statutory rape charge if the authorities found out. When she discovers that her mother has moved, she heads to the new address, while Will continues on to his destination. Before she gets there, she helps Smoke (John Ashton, Midnight Run), a wheelchair-bound man with emphysema, out of a jam. Though she finds his death-wish jokes disturbing, she's happy to provide domestic assistance in exchange for a place to stay, and at this point, the film's mood begins to lift. With the aid of his friend, Fishbone (Kenn E. Head), she finally locates Luanne, shortly after finding out that motherhood may be on her own horizon.
If Once Upon a River gets off to a grim start, and if Margo isn't the most expressive character, it ends with the possibility that a resourceful orphan can make a new life for herself away from the repressive forces of her past, a trajectory it shares with Debra Granik's Winter's Bone and Leave No Trace. Cinematographer Charlotte Hornsby contributes to its uniquely rustic Midwestern look, bolstered by the country-rock contributions of J.D. Souther, Rodney Crowell, and filmmaker Rose, a fine singer in her own regard. Recommended.