Shell has wonderful shots of the sparse desolate landscapes of the remote communities in the highlands of Scotland.

Shell is also a film of few words but it comes across as drab and isolated as its setting.

Shell (Chloe Pirrie) is a teenager on the cusp of womanhood working at her dad's petrol station. It is a place frequented by locals and long distance lorry drivers. Her epileptic father Pete (Joseph Mawle) spends time scrapping cars in the garage attached to the petrol station. He has been looking after Shell since his wife abandoned them both many years ago.

Both are locked in and need each other. Pete realises that it is unhealthy for Shell to stay with him. There is little in these parts of the highlands that has something to offer Shell apart from lonely divorced men and frisky teenagers.

There is no narrative here, Shell provides warmth to those who visit. Her father remains distant, as he knows this is what life is like here. Always has been and always will be, he decides to take matters in his own hands to force a change.

There has been several dramas made in the past such as this set in remote communities. I am thinking of Morgan's Boy from 1984 set in a Welsh hill farm which went for a bleak ending but at least it had more drama.

There are still places in the far north west of Scotland where you can drive for miles and scarcely see a house, with vast uninhabited moors between the roads, but for the most part, life in these parts is a story of small, remote communities that are communities nonetheless. Scott Graham's film takes us to lonelier place, however, the story of a young woman living an unhealthily close life with her needy, epileptic father: this might not be a normal life even in the highlands, but this a certainly a place where the daily practice of separation from others could lead to emotional isolation. The film follows the maxim of "show don't tell", which is often a good one; but here we only see a bleak portrait of empty lives, with exemplary incidents but little narrative: it's almost impossible to judge anyone as "good", "bad", or even "likeable" this far outside the normal physical and moral terrain. It's not an awful film, but a dash of something - humour, plot, malice - would not have gone amiss.

Shell is a seventeen year-old girl living with her father at a gas station in Scotland in the middle of nowhere. He sells old cars for scrap metal, while she pumps gas and cooks and cleans, much as a wife would do. Apparently, her mother headed for greener pastures and left dad and his daughter to fend for themselves. The movie drags on for an hour and a half, with no sense of humor or life to speak of. The almost incestuous overtone is creepy, as is some guy with a BMW who gives Shell a pair of expensive jeans for obvious reasons. The lead actress is very ordinary looking and her father seems to be the unhappiest man on earth. The two combine for an extremely depressing and meaningless drama which I cannot recommend for any reason. The one positive note is the beautiful Scottish countryside.