And that's saying something, considering how much I love Field of Dreams.
This is a terrific movie that Kevin Costner absolutely shines in.
Cast against type, he gives a mesmorizing performance as escaped con Butch Haynes.
They only quibble I have is toward the ending with the unsettling scene with the black family.
I understand that Butch has issues with child abuse but the scene goes on way too long and the implications of a murder about to take place make it difficult to watch.
But I guess that's the point.
I've watched this movie many times and still enjoy it immensely.

This film again established Clint Eastwood as an important director to watch but it proved to be disappointing at the box office despite good reviews. Perhaps it strikes too close to home for many Americans to examine what's happening to our kids when we neglect them and they turn out like character Costner plays as an escaped convict who despite everything has a soft side to him in his relationship to the little boy he befriends. Eastwood, himself, wisely took a supporting role as the sheriff who hunts Costner then realizes where he he has gone wrong in his early treatment of Butch (Costner). There is a powerful scene almost 2/3 a way in the movie when Costner's dark side emerges when he witnesses a father physically abusing his son--it is a scene so well played and directed that it stays in your mind long after the movie is over. In a way, Eastwood was preparing a warm up to his excellent "Mystic River" but also this represents some of Costner's best acting (although he and Eastwood did not get along during filming). Whole-heartedly recommended for all Eastwood buffs.

A Perfect World starring and directed by Clint Eastwood is an intriguing story of a strange and unlikely friendship between a young boy and the man who kidnaps him. Kevin Costner plays the kidnapper who is running from the sherrif played by Eastwood. I enjoyed this movie, I wasn't expecting such a moving piece of storytelling. I highly recommend checking this under-rated gem out!

I got this movie as a birthday present 2 years ago. I love it.
As a Clint Eastwood fan, I enjoy it very much, here we have a CLint Eastwood against Costner.
What I love about Eastwood movies is the fact that he always brings up the best of human beings and explore that.
Here we have an exconvict in a runway along with a boy he took from a home..... The little boy called Phillip will steal your heart..

A movie to watch more than once...

At 130 minutes, A Perfect World is certainly overlong - Kevin Costner takes even longer to die than Marlon Brando did in Mutiny on the Bounty - but compared to most films that attempt to pair box-office giants and simply ending up alienating both star's followings, it's actually rather good. Clint Eastwood the director fares better than Eastwood the actor, who could quite easily be cut out of the film, having little to do and doing it with minimum interest. Ditto Laura Dern's psychologist, who seems to be there solely to give Eastwood someone to talk to, but Costner is surprisingly good as the maladjusted convict on the run, coming into his own in a scene where he terrorises a black family (it's at this point you can just hear the film's box-office potential nosedive) with T.J. Lowther convincingly unmovielike as the young Jehovah's Witness he takes hostage and shows how to have fun. A minor film, perhaps, but with a darkness behind the humour that recalls Thunderbolt and Lightfoot it's well worth checking out.