High Price of Barely Getting By The unmarried lovers in Laurie Collyer's "Sunlight Jr." are young working-class Americans buffeted by woe. The feisty, resilient Melissa (Naomi Watts) has a minimum-wage job at the convenience store that gives the movie its name. Her live-in boyfriend, Richie (Matt Dillon), a former TV repairman, has subsisted on disability benefits since a motorcycle accident left him in a wheelchair. Their home is a shabby motel somewhere in west central Florida. The principal pleasure in Melissa and Richie's life is sex. An intense, protracted love scene reveals the strength of their physical bond. But how long can that last? And, as the saying goes, "You can't live on love alone." Because they both smoke cigarettes, and Richie is a heavy drinker, much of their meager income goes to feed bad habits. The movie suggests that Melissa was once addicted to prescription painkillers. Her ex-boyfriend Justin (Norman Reedus) is a menacing, snake-eyed lout who owns cheap real estate and peddles pills obtained in fly-by-night "clinics" that are ubiquitous in Florida's strip malls. For all their hardship, Melissa and Richie are managing to get by when misfortune strikes. Melissa, newly pregnant, is given "the graveyard shift" at work by her nasty, domineering boss, Edwin (Antoni Corone). It is too much for her, and in fury and disgust, she quits her job. Almost immediately, the couple are evicted from the motel for nonpayment of rent and forced to stay with Melissa's alcoholic mother, Kathleen (Tess Harper), who cares for foster children in a house infested with bedbugs. "Sunlight Jr." is inspired by Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed," a devastating examination of America's working poor. Like the book, it unblinkingly portrays a reality so scary and depressing that it is usually sidestepped or cosmeticized by popular entertainment. When Melissa has an episode of bleeding, she panics and visits a clinic for a sonogram. Because of the medical expenses, Richie explodes with frustration when she tells him. The couple, initially thrilled at the prospect of parenthood, immediately realize that they can't afford a baby. "Sunlight Jr." is a noble effort by Ms. Collyer ("Sherrybaby") to evoke what she calls "the shattered American dream" in the movie's production notes. It presents Melissa and Richie as a typical working-class couple, stuck at the lower end of the social ladder, dependent on minimum-wage jobs and public assistance. Despite the intensity of their performances, Ms. Watts and Mr. Dillon are only fleetingly convincing as these desperate young Americans trying to maintain a foothold. Ms. Watts, in particular, lacks the down-to-earth voice and body language that her character requires. Although Mr. Dillon's strenuously macho Richie is closer to the mark, the tone of his performance is more Hollywood, Calif., than Hollywood, Fla. Both characters seem to have sprung from outside their native environment in the place where movie stars strain to act like the common folk. Sunlight Jr. Written and directed by Laurie Collyer; director of photography, Igor Martinovic; edited by Curtiss Clayton; music by J Mascis; production design by Jade Healy; costumes by Amanda Ford; produced by Charlie Corwin, Ariel Elia and Andrea Roa; released by Gravitas Ventures and Samuel Goldwyn Films. In Manhattan at the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. WITH: Naomi Watts (Melissa), Matt Dillon (Richie), Norman Reedus (Justin), Tess Harper (Kathleen) and Antoni Corone (Edwin).