This manhunt thriller has some of the best performances in a Hollywood action drama put on screen, but suffers from severe credibility problems at crucial stages of its plot. Kevin Costner is a man on the run with a boy (TJ Lowther) as hostage - even the circumstances of the initial kidnap themselves are somewhat unconvincing - with Clint Eastwood as a pursuing Texas Ranger and Laura Dern as a criminologist assigned to the case. All the performances here are first-class and the ending, when it comes, is quite emotive but drags on far too long and, like much of the plot, is bedevilled by a failure to dodge any contrivance or cliché you might expect (and hope to avoid) in this kind of film. An imperfect world, then, but heaven, maybe, for fans of the stars, who are well up to their own highest standards.

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