FILMED in Alaska, against the backdrop of palatial mountains and imposing glaciers of Americas "last frontier", John Sayles' most recent film is a subtle, yet powerful insight into the lives of three ordinary people waiting for fate, or unforeseen circumstances, to redefine their directionless existence.

Joe Gastineau (David Straithairn) is an experienced fisherman, traumatised into a life of inadequacy and mundane survival by a boating accident 25 years earlier. Teasing her way into his life comes bar singer Donnna de Angelo (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a woman who despite carrying the excess baggage of a hundred new beginnings, has enough charm to persuade Gastineau to rediscover his emotions and take a chance on a relationship with her and loner daughter Noele (Vanessa Martinez).

The film appears to have set its stall out and we brace ourselves for an onslaught of fortysomething American Mid-West slush and Bruce Springsteen soundtracks, when Sayles turns the plot on its head. Innocently caught up in a failed drug deal that leaves Gastineaus' brother dead and our enforced family unit marooned and freezing on a remote island, they are compelled to fight for survival against two anonymous gunmen and the life threatening reality of the idyllic surroundings. We find that if we scratch the surface all three have a hidden strength that surprises the others.

The film loses its impact by adhering to the ground rules laid out in the title. Within the two clearly defined plot strands of the film there are too many unanswered questions. Do they escape the island? Is Smilin' Jack (Kris Kristofferson, bearing an uncanny likeness to the haggard Salmon of the opening sequence) saviour or executioner? Sayles draws us in to caring about the lives of his characters and leaves the audience in a state of emotional limbo as to their fate.