Here is the lowdown. A boy loses his father, and he goes to live with his uncle in a national park. Then he meets a wolf named "Silver". Unfortunately, he has to protect the wolf from a dangerous hunter.

Yeah, we've seen this before. In two embarrassing little kids movies, no less. Still, Shane Meier is such a great actor. He plays the main character so well. He also has great chemistry with Silver. I wish he was doing more projects, but apparently he's selling jeans in Vancouver. The other actors are really good as well.

Not a bad concept, and the acting makes the movie better than you'd expect.

Talk about one dimensional characters. Everyone here is either practically perfect in every way to quote Mary Poppins or rotten to the core, your typical smug patriarchal prig, Roy Schneider, or his typical teen bully nephew who is rude to newcomer Shane Meier simply because he is a city boy. For young Meier, dealing with the death of his father and being forced to move with his uncle Michael Biehn to the middle of nowhere, to then finding a young wounded wolf is the one thing that sustains him there in addition to his friendship with Schneider's perky daughter. Going up against Schneider and his nephew has to desperately try to keep the affectionate silver alive after he nurses him back to help. Kimberly Warnat is a talented young actress, very good in the part of Schneider's daughter although she is way too young to be his offspring.

The snowy scenery is a definite plus in addition to some great action sequences, particularly a bicycle race and later a snowboarding contest that results in Silver attacking one of the bad guys. Silver is completely dedicated to his new human friend, and that is the one touching element that shows how the bond between wild animal and human can occur when the human shows love and the animal begins to actually trust. A touching twist at the end is certainly a tearjerking moment.

There is a lot to like in this action film which really does make some good points, but the characters are drawn in ways to where they are completely flawless or as absolute jerks. Schneider is one of the best actors in the business, but his character isn't well developed and show some major inconsistencies, which tries to redeem him even if for a good percentage of the film, he's an absolute jerk. Still I have seen much worse in this genre of film, and the pacing and heart of the film do make you want to stick with it in spite of its flaws. The majestic scope and grand score are magical touches that manipulate into becoming hooked.