PROMISED LAND (15, 107 mins) *** Starring Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, Hal Holbrook, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt, Scoot McNairy, Titus Welliver. Director: Gus Van Sant.

Director Gus Van Sant and actor Matt Damon share a rich creative history.

In 1997, they made the inspirational Good Will Hunting, which was nominated for nine Oscars and gifted one golden statuette to Damon and Ben Affleck for Best Original Screenplay.

Five years later, Damon and Van Sant reunited for Gerry, a semi-improvised tale of friendship in the desert co-starring another member of the Affleck clan, Casey.

So this third collaboration is buoyed by high expectations.

Promised Land doesn’t quite meet them.

Written by Damon and co-star John Krasinski, this well-intentioned drama has a big heart that beats loudly in all of the right places.

Their script lays out arguments for and against – most against- the controversial practice of fracking, which extracts natural gas from shale rock formations.

Cold, hard facts and figures are ultimately obscured by the film’s sentimentality and a predictable battle between conscience and commerce that will face communities across America as big corporations offer silly money for drilling rights.

In Promised Land, the man with the fat cheque book is Steve Butler (Damon), who travels from town to town with colleague Sue Thomason (McDormand) persuading cash-strapped communities to sign lucrative leases that grant their energy company, Global Crosspower Solutions, the right to drill for natural gas.

Having grown up in a small Iowa farming community, which sold its land rights to survive, Steve is a fervent advocate for the cause.

He offers persuasive arguments and has an excellent track record for getting landowners to sign on the dotted line.

Steve expects a quick turnaround in his next target, the close-knit Pennsylvania farming town of McKinley.

Residents elect to put the GCS proposal to a public vote and Steve feels confident these hard-working people will respond favourably to his terms.

Then beloved high school teacher Frank Yates (Holbrook) and a vociferous out-of-town environmentalist Dustin Noble (Krasinski) cast doubts on the safety of fracking, and spearhead a campaign to drive GCS out of McKinley.

Promised Land is certainly timely. It means well, but it just doesn’t stir the soul.