![]() One of the movie's many pleasures is Ritter's performance as Vaughan the character has a complexity and sensitivity that seem to have come right outof his small-town time and place. And we see it from the inside, throughthe eyes of Vaughan, the homosexual, who like Karl is only a witness, but feelsthe pain. We seeLinda's life from the outside, through Karl's eyes, which view it in a veryliteral way and try to make sense of it. (“I reckon I'd like me some of them french fries, uh,huh.”) These characters are brought to life with a vivid strength. He repairs everything he puts his hand to,he makes new friends, and in one superb adventure, he orders and eats frenchfries for the first time, and his delight, masked behind his usual gruffmanner, is boundless. He is nottoo sure how some aspects of the world work, and stands in front of a door forhours before he thinks of knocking. Karlsettles into the household and begins to savor the taste of freedom. Only Vaughanand her son make life bearable. It'shard to understand why Linda stays with the venomous Doyle maybe it's aversion of battered-wife syndrome, and she can't imagine leaving. There is another key character in the story:Linda's boss, Vaughan ( John Ritter), a homosexual who accepts his sexuality butseems sort of apologetic about it, and who is also Linda's best friend. His criticisms of the boy are especially cruel. He meets the boy's mother, Linda ( Natalie Canerday), who has agood heart and offers to let Karl live with them, in quarters in the garage.Karl soon understands the wounded look in Frank's eyes, because he meetsLinda's boyfriend Doyle (country singer Dwight Yoakam), who likes to lounge inthe living room, drinking one longneck beer after another and ruling the roostwith loud, boorish opinions. He encounters and befriends ayoung boy named Frank ( Lucas Black), and senses immediately that the boy has awounded spirit. He can fix mostanything and gets a job as a garage mechanic. Onhis release from prison, Karl is more or less at loose ends. And the way the story of his freedom unfolds has aterrible fascination: We can guess where events might be leading, and we cansee how they cannot be changed. There is pain, humor, irony and sweetness in the character, and a voiceand manner so distinctive, he is the most memorable movie character I've seenin a long time. Stream It Or Skip It: Palmer on Apple TV+, a Melodrama in Which Justin Timberlake Finds Redemption in a Gender-Nonconforming Boy. He plays Karl as a man of limitedintelligence but great seriousness, who reasons as well as he can, and feelsdeeply. ![]() Thorntonis a former country musician turned screenwriter (he wrote the remarkable “OneFalse Move” and “ A Family Thing”). He says that the character “came to him” one morning while he wasshaving, and he started talking to himself in the mirror, in Karl's voice. If“ Forrest Gump” had been written by William Faulkner, the result might have beensomething like “Sling Blade.” The movie is a work of great originality andfascination by Billy Bob Thornton, who wrote it, directed it and plays KarlChilders. ![]()
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