A Perfect World

A Perfect World

D: Clint Eastwood (1993); with Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern, T.J. Lowther, Keith Szarabajka, John Jackson.

Some films have all the elements to become classics -- stellar acting, writing, and direction -- yet somehow manage to bumble around and mess it all up due to a few bad scenes. A Perfect World, sadly, ends up being one of them. Set in late 1950s Central Texas, Eastwood's film tells the tale of Huntsville escapee Butch Haynes (Costner) and his friendship with 10-year-old fatherless hostage Phillip Perry (Lowther) as they lead police on a two-day chase around the state, bound for Alaska, "the last frontier." Hot on their trail is Texas Rangers sheriff Red Garnett (Eastwood, haggard and stone-faced, as usual) and criminal psychologist Sally Gerber (Dern), who spend most of the film together in an Airstream trailer rumbling down the highway after the cons. The action begins suddenly when Phillip is kidnapped at his kitchen table on Halloween and dragged away from his screaming mother into the night. From there, more violence ensues -- Haynes kills his accomplice and fellow fugitive (played with sinister magnificence by Szarabajka) in a cornfield for trying to hurt the boy. Both scenes illustrate a perfect mood for the rest of the film -- very unexpected, very brutal, and very much like real life -- which immediately sets the viewer on edge. Anything can happen at any moment. Yet much of the rest of the story is surprisingly charming, a sort of cross between a coming-of-age and crime caper film. As they drive, Haynes teaches the boy about life, acting as the father figure he never had. Sheltered Phillip, we find, is a Jehovah's Witness and knows little about such important things as sex, stealing, and trick-or-treating. These scenes are what make this film shine, the combination of a bad man trying to do good and a young boy who has reached his final days of innocence. Costner is superb (a final hurrah, I suppose, before a stint of bad sports and apocalypse films) and steals every scene, and Lowther shows more range and cute looks than that Osment kid will ever have. Of course, Eastwood's name can't fizzle out with a lousy director's credit, so he implants himself unnecessarily into the film. In fact, between every heartwarming scene Haynes and Phillip share, there is Sheriff Garnett, grumbling to Gerber about Geritol and how he is growing older. Dern responds with good lines, gritted teeth, and a terrible Texas accent. As the cops and con converge, both storylines get muddled and rather predictable. Eastwood even starts wringing the film for every sentimental drop it has in it, stretching the climactic scene over the final 30 minutes. The ending can be guessed from miles away and suddenly, like the mood, A Perfect World is no longer the perfect film.