In a remote desert village in California, Freeman brings together several colourful locals and transients who all have their own reasons for holing up in this sandpit. Lance is a professor of popular culture who wants to investigate the huge pink ice-cream cone that decorates the village. He brings along his daughter Skye, a star of pay TV, but she is not interested in towns smaller than and less trendy than LA or San Francisco. Then there’s Blue, who wants to honour his father’s memory by postumously realising his dream: to create a water amusement park. His father was previously thwarted by a soft-drink manufacturer and died in mysterious circumstances.In the village, a truck full of one of the secret ingredients of cola explodes. The driver, who gets covered in the stuff, dies next morning. The whole village is put in quarantine by the FBI, so the urbane Skye is forced to mix with the locals. She finds out that her new companions are not as backward as she thought, that they also have dreams and ambitions. The last place on earth where she wanted to be, turns out to have unsuspected riches for her.The story unfolds in a laid-back way that is a nice contrast with Skye’s overheated and cynical way of life. In this way Desert Blue celebrates in an infectious way the uncomplicated pleasures of country life.
