THE RIVER WILD
A film review by Jeffrey Graebner
Copyright 1994 Jeffrey Graebner
THE RIVER WILD is one of the most entertaining and intelligent thrillers to come along in quite a while, largely due to an absolutely first-rate cast lead by Meryl Streep. The wonderful cast and well-staged action sequences are able to easily overcome a slightly contrived, occasionally predictable plot.
Streep stars as a history teacher and mother of two who had worked as a river guide in her youth. While taking her young son (Joseph Mazzello) on a vacation down the river, she makes the mistake of helping out a stranded boater (Kevin Bacon) who turns out to have a dangerous secret. Eventually, Streep is forced to guide Bacon and his partner (John C. Reilly) down the river along with her son and husband (David Strathairn).
Throughout her career, Meryl Streep has proven herself to be an extraordinarily versatile actor who fits easily into a wide variety of genres. It comes as no surprise that she is instantly believable and seems completely at home in this type of action film. Streep goes through a wide range of emotions here, ranging from exhilaration during the early parts of her journey eventually shifting to immense strength mixed with occasional moments of fear, anger, and even hatred. In numerous scenes, she is able to wordlessly convey a great deal of emotion through simple facial expressions and body language. In a couple scenes, Streep responds to Bacon's actions with wordless stares that say more than many actors could manage with pages of dialog.
In the past, Kevin Bacon has usually relied on his boyish charm to create instantly likable and sympathetic characters. In this film, he shows a surprising dark side. The combination of his usual charm with occasional shifts to controlled rage create a very effective villain. John C. Reilly's performance as Bacon's occasionally reluctant partner is also quite good. There are several strong scenes where even Reilly expresses shock at what Bacon is capable of doing.
David Strathairn continues to be one of the most underappreciated actors working in film today. I think the main thing that has kept him from being better known is that he is so chameleon-like that he can give two good performances that many people won't even realize are coming from the same actor. He is absolutely terrific here in a somewhat underwritten role that could easily have been a throw-away if it had been played by a lesser actor. Instead, Strathairn creates an interesting character who grows quite a bit during the course of the film.
Finally, Joseph Mazzello is sweet and completely believable as the young son. Coming after strong performances in JURASSIC PARK and SHADOWLANDS, this film certainly helps to establish Mazzello as one of the best child actors currently working.
While the performances are all outstanding, the story isn't quite as strong. The biggest problem was the inclusion of a subplot involving problems in Streep and Strathairn's marriage. This subplot is contrived and predictable and tends to occasionally slow the film down, particularly during the early scenes. Largely because of this subplot, the film takes a little long to get the main plot rolling. Once it does, though, the subplot is largely dropped and the film moves at a very quick pace.
Despite these plot problems, writer Dennis O'Neill and director Curtis Hanson largely manage to keep things moving and to avoid most of the common pitfalls of this type of action film. There aren't any moments where the characters do anything that seems stupid nor does the plot ever seem particularly implausible. It is especially refreshing to see action heroes who genuinely seem frightened by their situation and to be aware of the danger. The acts of heroism seem to be genuinely done with a great deal of concern and uncertainty.
Robert Elswit's Panavision photography takes advantage of the gorgeous landscape to generate some breathtaking shots without ever allowing the camera to get in the way of the action. The action sequences are all very well staged so that it is easy to tell what is happening. Jerry Goldsmith was brought in to score the film at the last minute after Maurice Jarre's score was deemed unsuitable, but the music is very good and certainly doesn't seem like a rush job. My only complaint is that we were once again deprived of a Goldsmith suite over the end credits in order to make room for a pop song.
Hopefully, THE RIVER WILD will be a big hit for Universal proving that there is a market for an intelligent action film with a top-notch cast. This movie is a lot of fun.
-- Jeffrey P. Graebner Columbus, Ohio
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