Hynes, who made one previous indie feature, "The Big Split," turns what sounds like a contrived idea into an unusual vehicle (literally) for two people to become intrigued with one another. Stealing a Volvo station wagon from a car wash, 19-year-old Mercer (Lou Taylor Pucci) leaves Eugene, Ore., to track down his errant older half-brother Arlen (Jsu Garcia), whom Mercer hasn't seen in 14 years. Arlen doesn't even know that his mother has died.

Mercer is scarcely out of town when the cell phone in the car rings and he's talking to the car's owner, a young female who, surprisingly, is not furious or threatening to call the police. Rather, she's curious, probing and intriguingly enigmatic. She gives him permission, in essence, to continue his trip, and the running dialogue between them not only gives Mercer something to think about, but constitutes a highly original kind of screen flirtation/courtship in which one of the participants is essentially not seen for a very long time. (Fans will instantly recognize the disembodied voice as belonging to Zooey Deschanel.)

Encounters with his brother's old associates, Mercer finds, can be dangerous to his health. At a stop at an ersatz art commune where Arlen once worked, Mercer gets slugged before being welcomed in.

Mercer's most significant encounter is with a former middle school classmate, Joely (Jena Malone), a slutty little number who accompanies him to Reno and uses a little ecstasy to bring him to the brink of losing his virginity. This breathlessly cut sequence is just one of several imaginatively edited sequences, the most memorable being one in which a Deschanel monologue is set to a montage of many different women lip-synching her words.

Unsurprisingly, the interlude with the opportunistic Joely does not end well, although it does provide Hynes with an irresistible opportunity to tip his stylistic hand by restaging the "Madison" dance from Godard's "Band of Outsiders." Director's prime influence is palpably the French New Wave, although in a post-screening discussion, he also mentioned Wong Kar-wai and the Kore-eda of "After-Life."

In a strange sequence, Mercer augments what Deschanel sarcastically dubs his "crime spree" by stealing a fancy videocamera from a porn director who calls himself Sergio Leone. With bumps in the road, Mercer makes his way south, through the Mojave Desert (Bill Duke pops up here in an amusing cameo) and beyond, until Deschanel's Kate, whose tone has been starting to reveal hints of jealousy, suddenly turns up in the flesh.

Together, Mercer and Kate move on, to Los Angeles and, finally, to Ensenada, Mexico, where the reunion with Arlen isn't at all what Mercer imagined it would be. In finally laying out Kate's motivations for cutting Mercer so much slack, Hynes isn't as imaginative as he might have been, causing Kate to ultimately become a rather more prosaic character than she was over the phone. All the same, Deschanel remains one of the brightest young talents in indie cinema, one awaiting a fully dimensional role that might show what she can really do.

Pucci, the star of "Thumbsucker" two years ago, again impresses, here as a troubled, naive, but optimistic kid ready to make the jump into manhood. Pucci has a light touch that cuts nicely against Mercer's setbacks and negative experiences.

Malone makes for a lively tart, while the most distinctive supporting effort comes from Nick Offerman, who unrecognizably plays three distinct and vibrant characters in different sections of the film.

Byron Shah's lensing stresses a washed-out, sun-flecked look that well expresses the multitude of locations and contributes its own energy. M. Ward handled musical chores and contributed 10 of the soundtrack's two dozen songs.

Camera (CFI color), Byron Shah; editor, David Birdsell; music, M. Ward; music supervisor, Linda Cohen; production designer, Damon Fortier; art director, Charles Nance; costume designer, Marie Schley; sound (Dolby Digital), Mickey McMullen; sound designer-supervising sound editor, Mitchell C. Gettleman; re-recording mixers, Todd Grace, Rudy Pi; line producer, Cassidy Lunnen-Katz; associate producer, Kelsey Landry; assistant director, Raul Aguilar; casting, Emily Schweber. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Spectrum), Jan. 24, 2007. Running time: 93 MIN.