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Clint Eastwood directs and costars with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World. Costner plays an escaped convict who kidnaps a young boy (T.J. Lowther) as hostage while he tries to flee Texas for Alaska. Eastwood plays the ranger in pursuit, accompanied by a psychologist (Laura Dern) familiar with Costner’s past. Along their thrilling road trip, the boy begins to view his captor as a fun and reassuring surrogate father. But when Costner’s behavior gets too dark, the boy violently defies him as Eastwood’s party closes in on them.
A Perfect World is a rare, relatively unseen gem of a movie. It’s a road trip drama with surprising humor and heart, benefitting tremendously from Eastwood’s surehanded direction and one of Costner’s best performances. The screenplay by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) features sophisticated characters, broaching some interesting themes about fatherless sons and what it means to be a good man. Dern’s character adds a feminist dimension to the story, forcing all the men around her to broaden their perspectives.
There’s one overwrought moment during the climax that feels out of character in an Eastwood film, and young Lowther’s performance is better in some scenes than others, but A Perfect World is very much worth checking out. It’s one of those films that reminds us that the struggle between good and evil isn’t one where the lines are clearly drawn — it rages within each and every one of us.
With Bradley Whitford, Leo Burmester, and Keith Szarabajka.