Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Three words - - Billy Bob Thornton. Name rings a bell? He pops up all over the place in supporting roles, was in Oliver Stone's U-Turn, and will be in this year's second meteor movie Armageddon as a NASA scientist. But would it surprise you to know that he won an Oscar last year? And that it was the prestigious award of Best Original Screenplay for this movie?

A year on (and two years after the film was made), Sling Blade is finally here. It's a low-budget affair, written, directed and starring Thornton, who also raised the money independently and found a distributor. It's clear to see it's a labour of love and, as such, is about 20 minutes too long. Being an auteur is all well and good, but when will they learn to be less precious and use a level-headed editor?

Sling Blade's a simple tale about a simple man. Thornton plays Karl with fierce methodology that, after only a few minutes of his random throaty murmurings, constant rubbing of hands, rasping voice and facial ticks, you forget about the actor and concentrate on the character. Thornton developed Karl as a set of monologues for stage and, in an early, single-shot scene, sits for five minutes, re-telling the killings to a journo.

While all this is fiercely engaging, the pace of the next two hours is as slow as Karl. We meet a boy who befriends him (Lucas Black from American Gothic), his mom, her foul-tempered, redneck construction-worker boyfriend and her kind, gay best-friend. We learn that, like all film idiot savants, Karl has a special gift (fixing lawnmowers) and so meet his implausibly fat boss and good-old-boy co-worker. The characters are engrossing, as is the fact it's set in Arkansas, where men are called things like Bubba. And that's the pic's saving grace as, aside from scenes exploring such characters, the plot consists of little more than wondering if Karl will kill again, and if so, who.

Occasionally ponderous and clearly overlong, Sling Blade is an absorbing, if not especially astonishing movie. Yet excellent casting and an inspired turn from Billy Bob Thornton raise it above being merely a bleak, indie version of Forrest Gump.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.