Sam Shepard, long known as the spokesman playwright of the American West, has a talent for endowing his cowboy-hatted characters with urban, neurotic psyches. The result has always been interesting. Now we get to see that firsthand in a film called "Simpatico," based on his play of the same title. This involves Shepard's favorite cast format of two guys and one woman, seemingly simple country folk who shoot coyote and square dance without a care in the world, but who turn out to be in desperate need of an expensive N.Y. shrink.

Directed by Britain's Matthew Warchus, "Simpatico" comes in an All-American package: horses, racing and men fondling cigars, against the splendid backdrops of Lexington, Ky., and Cucamonga, Calif. Alas, all is not idyllic in bluegrass territory and we see that the main characters have ugly pasts, haunting them every hour, 20 years after the deed was done.

And what deed was this? "Simpatico" unravels the unsavory details bit by tantalizing bit, moving at times like a detective thriller, overlapping with a heavily loaded human drama -- Shepard's signature material. While both methods work for about half the movie, it loses momentum during the other half, floating mostly on the ability and chemistry of the cast. Fortunately, Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Albert Finney and Catherine Keener are the kind of folks that carry it off.