For Hannah

The plot doesn't so much thicken as congeal in this amateurish, overlong crime thriller about a bank robber who stumbles upon a couple and finds unexpected opportunities.

“I’m just a guy trying to do the right thing the wrong way.”

So says Chance, the mysterious bank robber at the center of “For Hannah.” As played by Shannon Brown, who also is credited with coming up with the story, he’s a guy who’s done bad things in his life but isn’t proud of them.

As the story opens, the bank in the tiny hilltown of Pine Ridge has been knocked over and burned down. It’s the biggest event in years on Christmas Eve 1987. The local television reporter is positively giddy about such a big story.

Unfortunately, the thief’s stolen car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and Chance finds himself forced to take shelter at the only place around. This turns out to be the home of Frank “the Tank” Mueller, the local king of used car. As played by Ric Morgan, Frank is an icy, domineering man, especially toward his wife, Emma (Carla Abruzzo).

Dinnertime at the Muellers is instructive. Frank insists on sitting while Emma serves him — even so far as making her refill his wine glass from the decanter at his elbow. She’s been suffering for a long time, it’s clear — emotional abuse, and we suspect the physical kind, too.

Chance just figures on stealing Frank’s car and that will be it, but the battery is dead. This leads to a standoff with Chance holding the Muellers at gunpoint as night turns into Christmas Day. It’s a volatile power dynamic, with loyalties and motives shifting by the hour. Frank tries to entice Chance into cutting a deal in exchange for some of his stolen loot, while also working Emma to side with him if things should become nasty.

Meanwhile, the local police are on the hunt… as much as they’re able. The sheriff, Cooper (Bruce Spielbauer), is eight days away from retirement and doesn’t want to be hassled, preferring to hang out at the town diner eating pie. Rheumy-eyed and creaky-voiced, he seems like a lawman straight of the Scooby-Doo roster.

Fortunately, Deputy Gale (Suzette Brown) is on the case, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. She begins sniffing around the Muellers, and seems likely to figure out what’s going on.

Written and directed by John Wesley Norton, “For Hannah” is firmly in the B-movie sector, low production values set off by often hammy acting. (No surprise; one of his earlier efforts was “Not Another B Movie.”)

It’s going for a tense potboiler, but the plot doese’t so much thicken as congeal. At 112 minutes, it’s way longer than it needs to be, stuffed with lots of filler and “process” shots. There’s a pedantic feel to the storytelling, as if the filmmakers don’t trust the audience to figure anything out and need everything spelled out for us.

The title may seem confusing as there’s no character named Hannah, though things will eventually become clear in a twist to the tale that is supposed to bring an empathetic note to Chance’s character, but plays as more maudlin.

There’s the framework of a decent buried in here somewhere, but “For Hannah” is a low-value flick that takes itself way too seriously.