It should have been perfect: Clint Eastwood was fresh from Oscar-winning success with Unforgiven, while Kevin Costner was challenging his heroic status forged in such hits as The Bodyguard by playing a bad guy. As it is, the chemistry isn't quite there and this drama has to settle for being just very good indeed. Costner is perhaps a little too introspective as the escaped convict who kidnaps a young boy and heads for freedom in Alaska, developing a curious bond with the child en route. Eastwood plays the veteran Texas Ranger on his trail, growling his way through some trademark throwaway lines and proving yet again that nobody directs Clint better than himself. Indeed, the directing is astute throughout. While he clearly has sympathy for the confused con, Eastwood does not flinch from showing his brutal side. Similarly, he allows the youngster to reveal himself as something of a brat and not just a helpless victim. Regrettably, he's unable to find anything as interesting for Laura Dern to do as a criminologist along for the ride, but, as with the De Niro/Pacino face-off in Heat, it's primarily the long-anticipated confrontation between the stars that makes us sit down to watch in the first place.

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.