If only the cleverness of Charles Williams’ directorial debut “Inside” extended a little further beyond the number of ways he can twist the titular concept. The title card drops over an ultrasound of the narrator, soon-to-be adult prison inmate Mel (Vincent Miller), as he dwells inside his mother’s womb. Even before he’s a man inside the confines of a jail, he’s always defined and circumscribed by his surroundings.

Luckily, the big idea of “inside” extends into something more of a dichotomy as the story progresses. “Outside,” as the film defines it, is the freedom and release promised by parole to set one’s life course. However, the idea of the Australian carceral system, as expressed by the authorities enforcing its codes, is that what starts within those walls eventually transforms an inmate’s outward presentation. “Parole is about making better neighbors,” proclaims a teacher, “not better criminals.”

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But what’s meant as a process manifests as polar opposites in the prison environment, embodied by two surrogate father figures who emerge for Mel in his new environs. Representing “inside” is Guy Pearce’s Warren Murfett, a prisoner nearing parole who bears the shame and pain of his sentence on his soul. Decades behind bars and separated from his children render him a pensive, introspective figure on the block with a keen eye toward pragmatic survival.

Pearce’s work in “Inside” contrasts with his Oscar-nominated turn in “The Brutalist,” which saw the actor at his maximalist best. Williams elicits the sturdy, solid turn that has made Pearce a reliable cinematic anchor for decades. It helps that Warren, with all the additional years under his belt, comes with a history that Pearce can hang on each weary expression. Like any great actor, the line becomes so much more than what’s on the page through his carefully calibrated delivery. The doubts about his redeemability do not need external expression when he can make those internal forces roiling Warren so palpably felt on his face.

There’s Cosmo Jarvis’ Mark Shepard on the opposite end of the spectrum. From the moment Mel walks in and meets his new cellmate, Jarvis is acting with a capital A. The burly actor already cuts an imposing frame across the screen, and then he opens his mouth. Escaping from his lockjawed mouth is a voice so garbled and muttered that it could make Tom Hardy blush. He’s swallowing practically every word, but somehow, it’s all intelligible.

Mark is all “outside” with his newfound posture within the prison system. Despite committing one of the country’s most heinous crimes, he’s managed to get himself into a lower security facility in no small part thanks to his public conversion to Pentecostal Christianity. He wears his newfound faith on his sleeve, insisting that his outward godliness represents the projection of his inner salvation despite his horrific past deeds. The law might never recognize such a transformation by releasing him, but he will stop at nothing to bring more lost souls to his side.

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“Inside” might play like a riveting battle for Mel’s soul if the film felt concerned about his soul much at all. The character is ultimately too much of an empty canvas for two competing visions of reform and redemption to play out. Miller, making his debut in screen acting here, gets handily outmatched by the two towering actors he’s forced to react to throughout the film. Mel offers little but a blank stare with empty emotion in the face of Warren’s stoic guidance and Mark’s stern pastoral care.

The most charitable explanation for Mel’s sleepwalking through the “Inside” events would be that the character is meant to function as an audience avatar to survey the institution. But it’s hard not to look at his limited journey in the film and not conclude that he should be the protagonist. If anything, Mel would be better served as the precipitating event for a story centered around Mark or Warren.

Ultimately, the final score of the battle between inside and outside is a draw. There’s probably just enough elevation by Pearce and Jarvis’ performances to overpower the novice inputs of Williams and Miller. “Inside” is mostly passable as a film about men and prisons that thinks – wait for it – inside the box. [C+]

Following its North American premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, “Inside” opens in theaters on June 20.