Michael J. Smith Sr. is Lawrence, a suicide survivor at the center of a story of life’s struggles in the Mississippi Delta.

Alluvial Film Company / Lol Crawley

Ballast begins with a suicide, which is quickly followed by a suicide attempt. These acts are by two brothers, and Lawrence (Michael J. Smith Sr.), the surviving one, hardly says a word for the longest time. What gets him to start speaking is his 12-year-old nephew, James (JimMyron Ross), coming around with a gun.

They loved Ballast at Sundance. And many critics are gushing over this studiedly grim indie, although some find condescension in white writer-director-editor-producer Lance Hammer’s depiction of depressed rural blacks cleaning toilets, getting in trouble and going catatonic.

There’s probably a little truth in that. But the direct, shimmering minimalism with which Hammer tells his story also gets to some fairly real, universal stuff. Not all the time. While it wears its slowly unfolding despondency like a badge of honor, the movie has some positive plot turns in the third act that don’t entirely convince.

But, for the most part, the movie’s behavioral observation has its moments, and that, more than any themes or its poetic realist look, is what keeps Ballast worth watching.

That is extra impressive, considering that Smith and Ross and Tarra Riggs — who plays James’ mother, Marlee — as well as almost everyone else in the cast are Mississippi Delta locals who have never acted professionally before. Like one of his obvious influences, the austere French genius Robert Bresson, Hammer has a gift for picking normal people who are able to bring characters to full life in front of the camera.

James keeps holding up the indifferent Lawrence because he’s gotten in trouble with an older drug-dealing crowd while Marlee was out doing soul-numbing drudge work. When the pushers attack mother and son, Marlee moves in next door to Lawrence. It’s James’ dead father’s house, and a neighborly relationship seems impossible. Marlee hates Lawrence because his brother never did much for his son (and, maybe, for some other reasons); Lawrence blames his sibling’s suicide on her.

There’s also semi-legal wrangling over interests in a roadside convenience store the brothers owned, and Lawrence refuses to work now. But both contentious adults want to do what’s best for the kid and perhaps themselves. So …

Shot only in natural winter light, Ballast offers striking images of the alluvial plain, none more so than the opening image of James running ecstatically — and maybe a little desperately — toward a huge flock of rising birds. Most of the buildings we see, though, are rundown, cramped and isolated.

Is Ballast a little on the nose at representing the people who live there or is that just the way things are? Either can be argued, but I don’t think Hammer can be accused of dishonesty. A first-time director’s predilection for tragedy, maybe, and some plot turns that come too easily when he eventually gets around to telling a story. But, ironically, Ballast is by far the most serious and dramatically successful movie featuring blacks this season. Hammer’s competition has been stuff like Miracle at St. Anna, The Secret Life of Bees and Soul Men, but it’s still a noteworthy accomplishment.

****Ballast

Starring: Michael J. Smith Sr., JimMyron Ross, Tarra Riggs.

Rated: Not Rated, contains violence, drugs, profanity, children in peril.