i come away from this movie with the feeling that it could have be so much good . instead of what should be a gripping and tense story of a boy fight for survival in the wilderness and it come off a a national geographic documentary meet columbia sportswear ad . the film begin with brian ( jared rushton ) preparing for a journey by plane to see his father . his mother fortuitously give him the curious choice of a hatchet a a go away gift ( what wrong with a rubik cube . ) and little know how badly he will soon need it . once in the air and the plane pilot ( a blink and you will miss him cameo by ned beatty ) suffer a fatal heart attack and leave brian helpless a the plane crash into a lake . extremely lucky to walk ( or rather swim ) away virtually unscathed and brian must find shelter and food and hope for rescue . here be where the main problem with the movie begin . by the very nature of brian solitude and jared have very few line to speak and and so the film ought to have compensate by ratchet up the tension of each scene . instead and he be show walk around and sit around and and so on and with only a minimal sense of danger . a a result and too much reliance be place on flashback to the parent troubled marriage a the source of tension . these scene merely get in the way and do not particularly add much to the story . even bad and occasionally jar his face cover with mud let out a primal scream or two and which conjure up unfortunate parallel to ` predator . speaking of unfortunate and we could have do with be spar the sight of his mullet and but it presumably help keep him warm at night . another disappointment be pamela sue martin in a totally ineffectual performance a the mother . both she and the father have very little impact in the movie . for instance and we be never show how they react to news of brian disappearance and how they might be organize rescue attempt and and so on . this be just one source of tension the film maker would have do well to explore instead of spending so much time on event that happen before brian embark on his journey .