Chuck Norstadt (Nick Stahl) is the middle child of his widower mother. He is desperate to go to the military academy that his father attended after failing the entrance test. He spaces out from time to time and everybody looks at him as a little slow. He often fights with his half-sisters Gloria and Megan. Their mother has a new boyfriend in anti-war Prof. Carl Hartley. Justin McLeod (Mel Gibson) is the local bogeyman. All the kids are afraid of his half-burnt face and his dog. The adults gossip about the numerous rumors about the recluse. He's a former teacher and Chuck convinces him to prepare him for the exam.

Chuck starts off as an unlikeable brat. Stabbing the tire is too much. On the other hand, it does give a connection between Chuck and McLeod. It bugged me for the first half of the movie that every other word coming out of Chuck is a lie. The mentor relationship does build into something interesting. This is Mel Gibson's directorial debut and he shows a nice confidence. The movie does threaten to be overwrought in the last act but he is able to rein it in just enough.

Two years before his two Oscar wins (Best Direction and Best Picture) for Braveheart, Mel Gibson had this directorial debut, and not a bad first film. Basically Justin McLeod (Gibson) is the horribly scarred former teacher (from a fire),and he lives in recluse away from the gossip of everyone. One day though unhappy young boy Charles E. 'Chuck' Norstadt (introducing Terminator 3's Nick Stahl) is brave enough to go and see him, and he finds out he used to be a teacher. They eventually secure a trust, and McLeod becomes his secret tutor to help him study for his exams. Obviously they are eventually found out, and the authorities (police and parent) do not allow them to see each other any more, and this continues years later, and Chuck only sees recognises his face far away from the crowd. Also starring Margaret Whitton as Catherine Palin, Fay Masterson as Gloria Norstadt, Gaby Hoffmann as Megan Norstadt, Geoffrey Lewis as Chief Wayne Stark, Richard Masur as Prof. Carl Hartley, Michael DeLuise as Douglas Hall, Gloria's Boyfriend, Ethan Phillips as Todd Lansing and Jean De Baer as Mrs. Lansing. Worth watching!

At times, I did feel a little uneasy of this film, but then something happened, it grew on me. It was probably the performances mainly. Mel Gibson (in his first directorial effort, though I've heard of him co-directing Mad Max and find that Braveheart is better) very finely plays a guy who (like Kevin Spacey in pay It Forward) is emotionally and physically scarred. Since his burns came, he lives in the woods very quietly, until a smart (though very troubled) teen, played well by Nick Stahl, comes to him in search of tutoring in order to get into a military school. But the friendhsip is deep in this film, thanks to the supporting characters of the film who are primarily the boy's family. Sometimes a little too much in one whole strip of celluloid, but most of the time it is worth the watch. B+