MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO
A film review by Sarah M. Elkins
Copyright 1991 Sarah M. Elkins
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO: "She took the story in like some strange, spiked gift, too fragile to drop, too painful to hold." - from Lois McMaster Bujold's SHARDS OF HONOR
Plot kickoff: Two Portland teenagers - one is Mike (?) a pathetic narcoleptic (River Phoenix), one is Scott Faber, a rich kid slumming (Keanu Reeves) until his inheritance kicks in - hustle "dates" with men and women in Portland, and set off on a road trip to Idaho and Italy to find Mike's mom.
Characters/acting: outstanding. Phoenix strips away all defenses, playing a helpless, lonely kid who's become numb to his own despair. Reeves plays a complex character, sometimes jaded, sometimes compassionate, sometimes cruel, slipping in and out of his "Prince Hal" mode effortlessly, and yet the same person underneath it all - but even though he's engaging, he's also so remote that we never quite know who that person is. The other characters, Hans, the bizarre performance artist, and Bob, the "king" of the other hustlers, also fit their roles smoothly.
Cinematography/FX: Dreamlike scenes of Idaho - I don't know how they got the clouds and sky to do what they did. Wonderful. Gritty scenes of the street, still probably not as gritty as it could have been. Seeing the world through Mike's eyes as he has seizures is very strange (I hunger to see director Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy) do a movie of Dhalgren, or any Delaney). See skin/situations below. Definitely a big plus to see this on the big screen. I'd still recommend it even for the small screen, though.
Score/Sound: Some of the dialogue was sort of whispered and hard to hear. The soundtrack is minimal for most of the movie as far as I noticed; there were two good songs during the closing credits.
Violence/language: A few guns waved around, a fight in the dark (low visibility). Actually, I don't remember that much profanity, though it must have been there.
Skin/situations: Intense and graphic, but in golden-tone "still" shots too fast to really take in any one shot. Very interesting technique, more effective than any "heaving bodies" scene I've seen. Menage a trois among Hans, Mike, and Scott.
Analysis: The whole audience laughed at several scenes, but for me it was partly to keep my throat from getting tight and my eyes from watering. This is not a "tearjerker", but at times I felt overwhelmed by sadness. The unique vision and occasional beauty of this superb movie has enspelled me, and I want to be gripped by it again. Highly recommended.
-Sarah elkins.wbst139@xerox.com
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