Customer Reviews

Worth watching for the scenery alone - By: Mr. R. J. MacRae, 30 Dec 2008
Andrew McCarthy plays a young man travelling to New York City for a wedding. When his car breaks down, he hops onto a passing freight train & fallsin with a drifter played by Matt Dillon.

The drifter is on his way to his hometown & promises his new companion a warm welcome, fun times & good food. But while the townspeople are watching a parade & enjoying a festival, the drifter robs the local bank. In the first of several twists, Andrew McCarthy's character is not suspected of involvementin the robbery &in fact becomes a hero.

Although the script is good & the performances believable, the pace is slow & the plot depends on too many coincidences. The characters are depictedin broad strokes (there is the hooker with the heart of gold, a good girl who wants to be bad, the cynical politician, etc). The score is so schmaltzy I mistook this for a TV movie of the week production.

It is rare though to see Kansas on the big screen & especially filmedin such a loving way. The director took pains to find lush scenery, quaint small towns & gorgeous vistas. Many scenes were filmedin the golden evening light when the landscapes glows.

Special mention must also be made of Matt Dillon's star turn as the shifty ex-con who sheds his shirt at every opportunity.