Acting duo fuel 'Peanut Butter Falcon'

Following the personal and professional exploits of actor Shia LaBeouf has been an exhausting endeavor over the years. His acting chops remain excellent — the 33-year-old actor brings energy and authenticity to even his flimsiest characters, and he can conjure big emotional moments without the showiness of more mannered performers.

In recent years, LaBeouf has appeared in smaller projects, including an especially magnetic and vanity-free performance in Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey” from 2016. He’s equally good in “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” a modern spin on “Huckleberry Finn” that pairs him with newcomer Zack Gottsagen. The chemistry of the two stars propels the movie through some occasional slogs of unnecessary sentimentality.

LaBeouf plays a downtrodden fisherman named Tyler in North Carolina who steals and vandalizes some equipment from one of his more dangerous colleagues (John Hawkes). While on the run he meets Zak (Gottsagen), a young man with Down syndrome who has fled his residence at a nearby retirement home (he has no family to care for him) in order to attend a professional wrestling academy put on by one of his TV idols.

Realizing Zak has no money (or shoes or even a T-shirt), Tyler reluctantly agrees to help Zak reach the Florida wrestling school. This results in a series of adventures, many of which center on the pair building and navigating a makeshift raft (thus the “Huck Finn” comparisons). Dakota Johnson also stars as an employee of the retirement home who has taken to caring for Zak, and she spends the B-plot of the movie searching for him.

The behind-the-scenes story of “The Peanut Butter Falcon” is almost as compelling. Writer/directors Tyler Nilson (close but not quite) and Michael Schwartz met Gottsagen years ago at an acting camp and immediately made plans to work with him. They eventually shot a proof-of-concept video for a movie starring Gottsagen, which eventually led to the pair funding the full feature.

As a leading man, Gottsagen is compelling and often very funny as Zak, a devoted pro-wrestling fan with a contagious life outlook (His No. 1 rule: Party). He’s especially good in scenes with LaBeouf, who warms onscreen as his character begins to see Zak as a partner on the road rather than a liability. Even with a scuzzy wardrobe and a mangy beard, LaBeouf has never been more charming.

“The Peanut Butter Falcon” works incredibly well when focused on Zak and Tyler’s growing friendship. The movie teeters a bit once Johnson’s character reconnects with the A-story, where she becomes less a character and more of a potential romantic prize for Tyler. Johnson, however, is good in her scenes despite the lack of three-dimensional material.

More befuddling is anything involving Hawkes and his character’s pursuit of Tyler. He wants his money back, or wants to kill Tyler, or something, and he’s got Tommy Lee Jones-level fugitive detective skills. It leads to an overcooked climax that ultimately does little to progress the Zak-Tyler dynamic.

Those missteps are relatively minor in the overall experience of “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” as the filmmakers know how to prioritize the good stuff between Gottsagen and LeBeouf. It’s another pleasant step forward in the hopefully resurgent career of LaBeouf, and it would be great to see Gottsagen appear in more films soon.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.