I recently won this film at an eBay auction, and I finally got it in the mail this past Tuesday. I watched it last night, and oh my God, Kiefer was nothing short of amazing in this film. As someone else on a message board for Kiefer so eloquently put it: "The earliest example of a Kiefer performance transcending its vehicle." Everyone else seemed as though they were just reading, as though they'd just memorized their lines without giving them much thought. But not Kiefer. You can just tell that he put so much thought into the delivery of every word, every sentence, every flinch of his body. All of it blends together so seamlessly and creates this character that Kiefer completely disappears behind (just like he did with Roy in Behind the Red Door). You watch this movie and you don't see Kiefer. You see Kevin. And you know he made an impression on the people around him, because when Kevin finally opens up and tells Jenny what happened to his sister, Marsha Mason is really crying (as was I) and her performance gets better because of him. What boggles the mind most (well, mine anyway) is that he was SO young when he made this movie. He was 20, right? As Melia said "So young and so talented". I think that if I ever went into acting, and I had the honor of working with him (because that's exactly what it would be: an honor), I'd want to ask him what it is he does that enables him to disappear into roles like that (but knowing me, I wouldn't, 'cause I'd either be too klunked out or too chicken! LOL!). In any event, this movie has quickly become one of my favorite Kiefer films, and for his performance alone, it was well worth the price I paid.
