A mostly absorbing if finally overlong 'modern Western', whose token murder plot scarcely conceals its basic themes of relationships, reconciliation and coming to terms with the past. In the desert outside a Texas town, a set of bones and a sheriff's star sprout from the ground. It looks like the remains of much-hated Sheriff Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), a bribes-and-bullets lawman who vanished in 1957, rumoured to have been run out of town by his co-sheriff Buddy Deeds (Matthew McConaughey) whose son Sam (Chris Cooper) is the present sheriff. The intricate fabric of the story holds up quite well for most of the film, although the rekindled romance between Sam and his childhood sweetheart punches holes in the plot that director John Sayles could have done without.

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