Word: karl
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Thornton, you see, wants to have his box of chocolates and hack it to pieces, too. Directing his own self-scripted performance (did he cater it, too?), Thornton plays Karl Childers, a mildly retarded mental patient who, in his late thirties, is released back into the small Southern town he left twenty-five years before. That, you see, was the day he found Mama in bed with a neighbor and did a little number on them with the weapon of the title. Karl, though, is more half-baked than he is half-mad, the kind of convicted murderer who Didn...
...eyebrows are raised, then, when a single gal named Linda (Natalie Canerday) takes Karl in as company for said Frank (Lucas Black), her son. If this were a Hollywood movie, Karl would be hit by a beam of light, Babyface would croon a Tender Ballad, and Karl's newfound ability to learn Sanskrit in an hour would have Linda begging for more...
...Sling Blade" doesn't pretend for a moment not to know where it is going, but the heart of the film lies not so much in what happens as in why. Sometimes, the reasons are stirring: the Bible-born compassion Karl has for lonely Frank cannot tolerate the cruelty of the Herod-like Doyle. His inevitable act of violence is, at least in part, a religious mercy mission. Other reasons are less convincing: Does a story arc this simple need back-story effluvia like buried infants, failed bar bands, an attempt by John Ritter (yes, the John Ritter) to play...
Like "Gump," "Sling Blade" creates a fascinating protagonist but never fully decides what to do with him. Thornton is nonetheless a wonder to behold in the role, the rare actor who turns obvious mannerisms into a palpable personality. Karl ends all of his sentences with a guttural self-affirmation ("I don't reckon I got no reason to kill nobody, mmmhmmm") as though all of his statements contained a deeper truth that he alone fully appreciates...
...anything, "Sling Blade" spreads the wealth so broadly over so many characters and events that the dramatic focus meanders. A little Tarantino-style, non-linear narration might have added some tension, but then again, Karl's story should be as steady and straightforward...