Here’s a pop quiz for the group: who is Jessica Alba? No she did not star in Zero Dark Thirty, that was Oscar-winning actress Jessica Chastain. Nor is she Jessica Rabbit, the animated heroine in 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And you’re definitely showing your age if you think she was in 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy as that was Jessica Tandy.

Jessica Alba then is somewhat of an enigma, a familiar name, and yet not one that has starred in a hugely successful film or franchise. And sadly for the 43-year-old actress, her latest offering doesn’t change anything.

Returning to her home town of Creation is Parker; she’s taking leave from her position in the army to see her father, only to find he is dead. Oops.

The sheriff of the town, Jesse (Mark Webber), who also happens to be an old boyfriend of hers, believes that it may have been suicide, but Parker knows her father wouldn’t have done that.

And it doesn’t take long for her to discover that there is more going on in her home town than meets the eye, and somehow it has something to do with her father’s death too. Whatever it is, she will get to the bottom of it.

It’s been five years since Alba’s last appearance in film, the semi aptly titled Killers Anonymous, which she co-starred in, but this is quite a rarity in being an out and out star vehicle for Alba.

It is the first film in English for Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya, who has only made three films previous to this one. And on this evidence, she doesn’t come across as being anywhere prepared for a fairly big budgeted American action film.

The main problem with the film is the script, which is woeful beyond words. Perhaps it was more exciting in translation for Surya, but the result certainly doesn’t translate to the screen.

It involves a pathetic arms deal that goes wrong, where the arms are stored in an abandoned mine. It is then, a story that was better suited for the passengers of the Mystery Machine Van to solve, one where the perpetrators would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids, not Jessica Alba.

Alba does well, showing that at even 43 she’s more than competent to be an action hero, but some of the dialogue, like much of the supporting cast, is utterly forgettable.

It’s ironic then for an actress to pick a project, that she is clearly the headline act of, keen to resonate with audiences once again, only to be remembered here for all the wrong reasons, making neither the return nor the impression she was probably hoping for.