A Perfect World (Un monde idéal)

It is hard to imagine how someone can be rooting for a person who has escaped from jail and who has the ability to turn so violent (Costner), but that is what you will find yourself doing throughout this movie. It is the intellectual and well-meaning part of Costners' character that keep shining through . He can be bad, but he can also be compassonate, patient and in a sense, nuturing, to the young boy he has kidnapped. He is a man of conviction, but tortured by his past and you will find yourself hoping that things turn out well for him, and the boy....Laura Dern and Clint Eastwood (who directed the movie) give subtle but more than entertaining perfomances in their quest to hunt down Costner and save the boy. One of my favourites

Eastwood has made a movie, and he directs with a different tempo than most escape films, an escaped prisoner takes a boy as hostage and that forms part of the film this relationship, and the other half is iconoclast-cynic cop Eastwood, but no dirty harry, chasing him and his relationship with a female associate in which he talks of the chase and his views s he relates to young associate..that is the basis of the film, rather than screeching cars and action and shootout we have relations. The filmopens with Jehovah's Witness house at holloween(do they celebrate) with a mother commenting on the world above and how this changes their values of this world below, a world about a search for the values of the world above, and the lack of them among the fields of texas, and on the local culture. The costner character a few times mentions the time machine(a slip by the scenarist he should only mention it once it becomes redundant)...and professes a view given his dilemma of travelling to the future to a perfect world away from the present time, an interesting 19th century view, of progress...and on his journey the boy eventually shoots him among a melee with a religious family, but then warms up to him before being shot by a police official...to the chagrin of Eastwood..who notices the character of the escaped convict, a film not so much straddled by the function in society of characters, but by their personality, and for whatever reason the sufferings of the Costner character though faulty has a decency in him, as he yearns for a more perfect world...and people. Eastwood's character too has this yearning in him...and finds the shooting of the convict causes him violence, he wanted to bring him in and all seems as nothing even his knowledge, we all know so little, the wisdom of old age, and the religious...characters looking for something more in this interesting Eastwood character and the opening scene of the jehovah's witness against the holloween background sets the scene and mood for this movie...

Butch (Kevin Costner) escapes from prison, takes a little boy named Phillip hostage, and leads the police (headed by Clint Eastwood) on a 2-day chase through rural Texas. The boy forms a close bond with his kidnapper who turns out to be a compassionate, though flawed, man.

This is a very good movie with some humor and a lot of suspense. Butch and Phillip's scenes are pure gold, extremely well-written and believable. Kevin Costner gives an excellent, subtle, and sympathetic performance. Seven-year old T. J. Lowther is perfect as the boy who sees the getaway as a fun and grown-up adventure; he's endearing without being too-sweet. The movie alternates between Butch and Phillip and their pursuers, and while Eastwood is good as the steely Texas Ranger, Laura Dern is just annoying in a thankless role as a scowling criminologist. I would have given the movie 5 stars if all of the scenes without Butch and Phillip were deleted; they are wonderful together and the rest of the cast is just there to pad the movie.

Directed by Eastwood, the film is ultimately a sad one but Costner and Lowther are outstanding.