First Thoughts on "The Fugitive Kind"

“It’s Xavier,” he mumbles.

“With an X or an S?” comes the reply, and an early hint at the kind of pointed metaphors The Fugitive Kind will traffic in. No, his name is not “Savior”; it’s “Xavier,” though most of those who know him before that moment call him “Snakeskin” (after the jacket that serves as his Wild at Heart-style symbol of individuality), and most of those after, or at least the one who matters, call him “Val.” You get a sense that he can shed those nicknames, and their connected identities, as easily as the snake sheds its skin, that nothing much bothers this man who’s apparently spent his life cruising by on his charisma. But over the course of the picture’s two hours, he will find himself very invested indeed in the happiness of another person.