A Perfect World (1993)

This was a really exceptional story with wonderful acting. When I could tell that it was nearing some kind of ending, I was sorry. It was like a love story, in the long run. Costner played an especially damaged man who didn't want that to happen to another child. It wasn't always sad though. Like Phillip, I had plenty of fun too! Great directing by Eastwood.

It's 1963 Halloween night, Texas right before JFK's arrival. Robert 'Butch' Haynes (Kevin Costner) and Jerry Pugh escape from prison in Huntsville. Pugh breaks into a family home and they escape by taking the boy Phillip Perry hostage. Phillip's mother is a Jehovah's Witness and she forbids her children to participate in Halloween. Phillip doesn't know his father and soon Butch becomes a male role model for the boy. Texas Rangers Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood) and Tom Adler are on the chase. The Governor sends over an airstream trailer and criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura Dern) to help. FBI agent Bobby Lee tags along in the manhunt.Kevin Costner delivers the perfect combination of menace and caring. The boy is a great foil to him. Eastwood, Dern, and the others give the light comic relief. Costner and boy could have been in their own indie. Their relationship is touching with great moments of underlying tension. The Eastwood side of the movie is a little more lighter. The overt comedic scenes take some of the tension away. It's probably the lesser side but it's still plenty good.

This movie denies the simplistic idea of good and bad that presents bad characters as totally evil and good characters as totally good. Kevin Costner performs here the role of someone who is a delinquent killer, an escaped convict who kidnaps a small boy as an hostage to feel protected in his escape but shows very good feelings and sentiments in the course of events that follows. His relationship with the boy develops itself as deeply sentimental on both sides since the boy becomes very friendly with his captor also because he is getting an earnest education from his mother who is a Jehovah's Witness and deprives him and her other children of much of the fun that children use to enjoy and now he begins to feel more free in the company of his captor than at home. In terms of action the movie is a bit lukewarm in the beginning and till its middle but in the last third it develops itself in rather dramatic and moving scenes which make it worth to be seen. In conclusion: not a very good movie but a good enough one.

This movie is extraordinary , I watched it three times and I still cry at the end of the movie . This movie show us the human nature , how a bad guy , a convict , can become a '' father'' for a child . But unfortunately here we can see how people judge you , they treats you by appearance and not treat you after your true essence.. I mean some people don't understand that someone can change. Kevin Costner plays very good his character , he show durity but in the same time he shows sensibility too . So ,I just love and appreciate this movie , because is simple , has a good storyline full of emotion and drama and show us how can people be , even if at first glance seem bad .