I've just seen this movie more than 10 years after it was released.I'd heard about it and it was as good as the hype I'd heard.It was written,directed and starred in by Billy Bob Thornton.
Billy Bob plays a mentally challenged man,Karl,who must try to fit back into society after a long stay in a mental hospital.He gets a job in a repair shop and soon becomes friends with a boy and his mom and moves into their garage.Also hanging around is the moms abusive boyfriend,superbly played by Dwight Yokem.
I guess the most impressive thing about this movie is the superb acting of everyone involved.Billy Bob is terrific as Karl and Yokem is perfect as the boyfriend who is determined to make everyone around him as miserable as he is.Haven't we all known insecure rednecks who hate everyone because their own life is a pointless hateful mess?Yokem nails this guy perfectly.John Ritter plays a gay man and it was good to see just how well the late actor could play a serious part when he had the chance.No one looks much like themselves in this film.It would be hard to tell who Thornton,Yokem and Ritter are if you didn't know they were in this film.And the small town life is captured really well by this film.
The only problems I had with the movie was that some of the lines Thornton wrote for the young boy were just too sappy and maudlin at times.No self respecting 11 year old boy is gonna say some of the stuff that this one said.But that is a minor thing.The other problem was that as soon as I saw the abusive boyfriend I knew what the outcome was going to be.Maybe that is my fault for thinking too much ahead instead of just watching the film.But again that is a minor thing.
All in all I really enjoyed this film.But seeing it in 2007 I have to wonder what has happened to Billy Bob in the last 10 or 11 years since this movie came out? Anybody who can write and direct and star in a movie of this caliber obviously has some talent. So why is Thornton wasting his time and talents on crap like "Bad Santa" and "School for Scoundrels"? But even if Thornton never does another decent movie at least he has "Sling Blade" to his credit.And that ain't bad,uh-huh.
Billy Bob plays a mentally challenged man,Karl,who must try to fit back into society after a long stay in a mental hospital.He gets a job in a repair shop and soon becomes friends with a boy and his mom and moves into their garage.Also hanging around is the moms abusive boyfriend,superbly played by Dwight Yokem.
I guess the most impressive thing about this movie is the superb acting of everyone involved.Billy Bob is terrific as Karl and Yokem is perfect as the boyfriend who is determined to make everyone around him as miserable as he is.Haven't we all known insecure rednecks who hate everyone because their own life is a pointless hateful mess?Yokem nails this guy perfectly.John Ritter plays a gay man and it was good to see just how well the late actor could play a serious part when he had the chance.No one looks much like themselves in this film.It would be hard to tell who Thornton,Yokem and Ritter are if you didn't know they were in this film.And the small town life is captured really well by this film.
The only problems I had with the movie was that some of the lines Thornton wrote for the young boy were just too sappy and maudlin at times.No self respecting 11 year old boy is gonna say some of the stuff that this one said.But that is a minor thing.The other problem was that as soon as I saw the abusive boyfriend I knew what the outcome was going to be.Maybe that is my fault for thinking too much ahead instead of just watching the film.But again that is a minor thing.
All in all I really enjoyed this film.But seeing it in 2007 I have to wonder what has happened to Billy Bob in the last 10 or 11 years since this movie came out? Anybody who can write and direct and star in a movie of this caliber obviously has some talent. So why is Thornton wasting his time and talents on crap like "Bad Santa" and "School for Scoundrels"? But even if Thornton never does another decent movie at least he has "Sling Blade" to his credit.And that ain't bad,uh-huh.