thin story concern two small town brother and their struggle over family honor . david morse be the responsible and straight lace cop and good brother while viggo mortensen and the bad boy and be a former soldier and ex convict . a an actor ( particularly in his early year ) and sean penn seem to have modulate his performance under the method . turn first time writer and director for this arty and obtuse drama and he work his script and character out through the same methodical process and slow the pace down to a crawl ( ostensibly so we can catch every nuance and inflection ) . this approach might be fascinate if there be three dimensional character to care about and but photogenic morse and mortensen aren not really convince a sibling . bad and we expect more from prominently bill veteran charles bronson and sandy dennis and who hardly get a chance to come through with anything interesting . the picture be balky with turgid sequence and a wobbly narrative and confuse edit ( always slant to point up the artistic excess ) . penn trick with the camera show off a talented eye and yet they be mostly an irritation . half from .