One False Move (1992)

Directed by Carl Franklin. Starring Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, Jim Metzler, Earl Billings, Robert Ginnaven, Natalie Canerday, Kevin Hunter, Phyllis Kirklin. [R]

The filmmakers hardly make a false move themselves with this moody, personality-driven crime thriller that tweaks a lot of familiar elements so that they manage to shine like new. On the hunt for a trio of criminals traveling with a stash of money and cocaine, two LAPD detectives stake out the Arkansas small town where the young son of one of the crooks (Williams) lives; Paxton plays the earnest, eager local sheriff who’s impressed by the big city cops, but he conceals a few secrets of his own (at least one of which even he won’t admit). Director Franklin, a newcomer making his first major feature, develops the tension through relationships and reactions instead of plot contrivances and manipulation; the final showdown may be inevitable to the point of cliché, but how it arrives, plays out, and ends are anything but. A touch more visual style and savage wit might have made this one of the best the genre had to offer in the early-90s, but as an oft-forgotten gem today, it deserved a much longer shelf life. Thornton also co-scripted, his first credit as a screenwriter.

80/100