"Sling Blade" is a Billy Bob Thornton fest. He wrote, directed and starred in the film and succeeded in all aspects. Thornton plays Karl, a mentally-challenged man who spent 20 years in a mental institution for killing his mother. Karl finds friends through his new job as a small engine mechanic and a teenage boy dealing with his mother's abusive boyfriend named Doyle. Without telling the story outright, Karl defends the boy and his mother from Doyle in his own tried and tested fashion.

It's heart-wrenching to see the slow-witted Karl come to his conclusion about what to do about Doyle. Karl doesn't view his act as a sacrifice but as a necessary act to ensure the safety of his newly found friends.

Karl is a gentle monster of a man who sees things as black and white, right and wrong. Doyle is a more complex beast, selfish and insecure, needy and nasty. Karl is the polar opposite of Doyle.

Too many people use Thornton's Karl as a source of humor. Quotes like "french-fried taters" and the guttural "Uh-hmm" that Karl uses in his conversations are funny at times, but seem necessary to lighten the heavy subject matter explored here. "Sling Blade" moves slowly. It's more accurate to say it moves slooooooowly. There is no action to be found. There are long conversations with even longer gaps when no one says a word. The leisurely pace of the film matches its southern setting perfectly (or at least the impression that people on the East and West coasts have of "fly-over country"). Overall, "Sling Blade" is an engrossing film with a star-studded lineup of actors telling a simple yet thoughtful story.

***When a murderer is the likable protagonist, mmm-hmm***

A simple, slow, seemingly pensive man (Billy Bob Thornton) is released from a mental hospital in central Arkansas after 30 years and gets a job fixing lawnmowers. He makes friends with a boy & his mother (Natalie Canerday) and they let him live in their garage, but the mother’s abusive boyfriend presents a problem (Dwight Yoakam). John Ritter is on hand as the mother’s gay best friend.

"Sling Blade" (1996) is a small town drama with a memorable central character (if I didn’t know beforehand that Thornton played the role, I wouldn’t have recognized him). The characters and their situations smack of real life while the unhurried story is interesting enough. There are well-done moments of meditation and revelation, as well as touching ones.

It’s a tad overlong, however, and the politically correct glorification of Vaughan (Ritter) is eye-rolling. Karl (Thornton) observes that “The Bible says two men ought not lay together. But I don't reckon the Good Lord would send anybody like you to Hades.” Yet his opining doesn’t mean much since he candidly acknowledges elsewhere that he doesn’t understand a lot of the Scriptures, not to mention his foolish predilection for murder to solve mundane problems. He should stick to fixing lawnmowers and eating them French fried potaters, mmm-hmm.

The film runs 2 hours, 15 minutes, and was shot in Benton & nearby Haskell, Arkansas, which are about 20-30 minutes southwest of Little Rock.

GRADE: B-

I was skeptical of this movie for many years. I've never understood the Hollywood fascination with with showering accolades on actors that play disabled people. After all, guys have pretended to be disabled since we could talk. If you're a woman and you doubt this, ask your guy to do an imitation of a disabled person. I'm not saying it is right or that we're proud of it. I'm just saying that we can all do it. Has there been a more overrated performance that Hoffman in "Rain Man"? At least he did it well.... I've seen bits and pieces of "I Am Sam" and it looks like Sean Penn was a retarded guy on helium.
Anyway, it was clear from the opening minute of the movie that this was something different. First of all, the Billy Bob Thornton (who also wrote and directed the movie) somehow made his skull look like a neanderthal's dome. Think Billy Corrigan meets Private Pyle. More importantly, Thornton came up with a very unique character. Karl is just that - a character, not an imitation. Second, the movie was not a preachy flic about how disabled people are people too. In fact, we slowly learn that Karl is most likely not enabled. Mmm hmm.

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