in any number of film and you can find nicholas cage a a strong and silent hero and dennis hopper a a homicidal maniac and lara flynn boyle a a vamp or tramp and and the late and lament j. t. walsh a the heavy . these be the type of role these four can play in their sleep and and they have do so often enough that to see them play them again border on cliche . what a relief and therefore and that john dahl and a master at get a lot of mood out of a little action and direct this nuanced noirish thriller . hopper manage to keep from go over the top and cage show a little more depth than his usually superficial action hero and boyle be by turn sultry and innocent and and scheming and and one get a sense of the hard iron of the soul that be central to his character and wayne . dahl direction give a sense of the emptiness of the big sky country where the story take place while also be intimate enough to show how a wrinkled brow can indicate a radical change of plot in store . the plot twist be top notch and and one of the other great twist in this movie be that some of the support character actually act a if they have brain . it isn not often that minor character like deputy sheriff have more brain than their headlining superior . but with a director as smart a dahl and you shouldn not be surprise by the intelligence of anything connect with this film . an excellent movie .