However, that's hardly the most damning flaw of this baldly manipulative, emotionally counterfeit melodrama. The filmmakers extol humanity's virtues, while the darker side eludes them. Kevin Spacey portrays Eugene Simonet, an able educator whose charming classroom manner is at odds with the scars on his face. Trevor doesn't have much quality time with Arlene, who works two jobs and regularly drinks herself to sleep.
Physical abuse replaces the book's racial issues as the unifying theme here.
The film opens in the middle of the story, when Trevor's plan has already grown beyond the boundaries of Nevada. As Chris glumly stares at the crumpled heap, a passing stranger improbably insists that Chris accept his Jaguar. Naturally, the reporter's suspicions are raised by this pricey gesture, and his subsequent investigations take the form of a series of flashbacks. It's a needlessly intrusive way of telling, then inflating, this intimate scenario. The contrivance does provide some of the picture's livelier moments, involving a dissembling crook who claims to have come up with Trevor's concept.