A Perfect World *** (1993, Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern, T J Lowther) – Classic Movie Review 9260

Producer-director Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World (1993) is well made and decently paced as a crime thriller entertainment, though it is not as exciting or evocative as the similar Hunted (1952), Badlands, The Sugarland Express or Thelma and Louise. However, as a serious work, it is hard to see the purpose behind this unsettling, possibly dangerous dabbling in the murky waters of child psychology and abuse.

In a perfect world, Eastwood would have a much bigger and better written part as Texas Ranger ‘Red’ Garnett, who, with a team of redneck deputies, including sincere criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura  Dern), leads the manhunt for killer Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner).

Haynes has escaped from jail, where he was serving 40 years for armed robbery, and is on the run with a seven-year-old boy, Phillip Perry (T J Lowther), as his hostage. The well-meaning but misguided Red Garnett, it emerges, first sent Butch Haynes to jail as a juvenile.

The central relationship of Costner and the kid motors the movie effectively and they both play well, showing considerable rapport. The rest of the acting is solid, but none of the support players has enough to go on. The film picks up interest and momentum in the middle section, but it becomes vaguely depressing, with increasingly nowhere to go.

A Perfect World is set, by the way, just before President Kennedy’s visit to Dallas, though little is made of this.

Also in the cast are Leo Burmester, Paul Hewitt, Bradley Whitford, Ray McKinnon, Jennifer Griffin and Bruce McGill.

A Perfect World is directed by Clint Eastwood, runs 138 minutes, is made by Warner Bros and Malpaso Productions, is released by Warner Bros, is written by John Lee Hancock, is shot in Technicolor by Jack N Green, is produced by Clint Eastwood, Mark Johnson and David Valdes,  and is scored by Lennie Niehaus, with Production Design by Henry Bumstead.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9260

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