Karl Childers, a mentally disabled man, has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly institutionalized, he is deemed fit to be released into the outside world.

• Miramax
• The Shooting Gallery
• Billy Bob Thornton
• Dwight Yoakam
• J.T. Walsh
• John Ritter
• Lucas Black
• Natalie Canerday
• James Hampton
• Robert Duvall