Billy Bob Thornton directs himself in 'Sling Blade', and gives a performance both remarkable and restrained, as Carl, a mentally limited individual released from a mental hospital where he's been held since killing a man as a child. It's a shame that the construction of the film does not match the standards of his own performance, or indeed of the also excellent acting he induces from the rest of his cast (especially Dwight Yoakam, who's improbably good). But the pace is very slow, the inevitable end is heavily telegraphed, while as a whole the film is encumbered by a solemn earnestness rarely seen in real life. The horrific situation that unfolds is believable, but sufficiently extreme as to lose the moral complexity that might otherwise inhere in this drama; and there's also the occasional misfiring note (Carl is supposed to be a whizz at fixing engines: he demonstrates this by telling his co-workers to remember to put petrol in them!). 'Sling Blade' is not a bad film, but a slightly lighter touch would not have gone amiss. It still achieved enough to make Thornton's reputation as among the more talented actors in modern American cinema.
Review of Sling Blade
