Director Billy Bob Thornton fills the screen with awesome scenery and a hard hitting drama about two young cowboys from San Angelo, Texas meeting up with another young horseman and coming face to face with life altering situations in and out of a Mexican prison. Friendship stays strong to the bitter end. And love proves to be stronger than life itself. Matt Damon, Henry Thomas and Lucas Black are the hard luck cowpokes. Damon falls in love with Penelope Cruz and provides some steamy love scenes. There is more drama than action in this western, but you should find it very entertaining. Damon and Black are the most impressive characters in this well-made movie.

Westerners Matt Damon and Henry Thomas go on a wanderjahr to Mexico in the 1940s looking for the meaning to life. They get into all sorts of trouble, including Damon falling in love with Penelope Cruz, the daughter of the country's most important ranch owner. They go to prison, and the story meanders around a lot, with a lot of handsome vistas and a summing up by Bruce Dern. Lucas Black, as a wild youngster who is just as good as he says, is the most interesting character for me; I know a guy like that.

Despite a summing up by Bruce Dern, it's too unfocused to be absolutely top notch. Reports are that Miramax cut an hour from director Billy Bob Thornton's version, which might explain it.

I wish that I had seen this sweeping saga on the big screen, not because this is an excellent film, but because it looks so darn good. It's an interesting but flawed tale of two friends whose decision to cross the wall-less Rio Grande from Texas over to Mexico turns out to be an adventure of a lifetime, although one filled with some moments they would rather not have gone through. It's sort of a modern day version of the story of Job with a rather confusing structure, sometimes violent, often poetic, and overwhelmingly frustrating. It's a film with many dimensions that tries too hard to pull all the elements together.

The presence of a third party stirs up even more trouble for Matt Damon and Henry Thomas, and whether or not this pesky kid is guilty of horse theft is never revealed, only assumed. But the two end up in a Mexican prison, one of them deals with family honor concerning spoiled rich Mexican girl Penelope Cruz, and one of them ends up on the run with a Mexican police captain as a hostage. In small roles, Miriam Colon (as Cruz's part understanding/part domineering aunt) and Bruce Dern (as a compassionate judge) make quite an impression. This is a film that I wish I could rate higher, but my gutt tells me that as profound as it strives to be, it's rather empty.