The River Wild (1994)

the audience applauded

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The teacher Gail Hartman (Meryl Streep) is facing problems with her marriage with her husband, the workaholic architect Tom Hartman (David Strathairn). On the birthday of their son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello), Gail decides to leave her daughter with her parents and take her family to raft down a wild river where she was a guide. On the departure, a young man named Wade (Kevin Bacon) befriends Roarke and leaves the place with his friends Terry (John C. Reilly) and Frank (William Lucking). Later the family encounters Wade and Terry, who do not have rafting experience, and Gail helps them to cross a whitewater. They get closer to the family and soon Gail and Tom learn a dark secret about Wade and Terry. What will they do to get rid of the men?Twenty-three years after its release date, "The River Wild" is still a breathtaking film. The story is predictable and corny in some moments, but the action scenes are still impressive. The forty-five year-old Meryl Streep is athletic and looks younger and younger. Unfortunately the DVD does not have making of since the scenes of white-river rafting are amazing. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Rio Selvagem" ("The Wild River")

Gail (Meryl Streep) is a white water rafting guide. She, husband Tom (David Strathairn) and son Roarke (Joseph Mazello) are kidnapped by robbers Wade (Kevin Bacon) and Terry (John C Reilly), who see rafting down the river as an effective escape route.It's pretty easy to understand the casting decisions for Bacon, Reilly and Strathairn, but Streep isn't the most obvious choice for action Mom Gail. Yet, as usual, she is superb (as is everyone else). The underlying marital problems give her a great deal to get her teeth into, but she also excels as the woman called upon to be a protective mother, a defiant hostage and someone on whose expertise on the river everyone's survival depends. Bacon is gloriously evil, a happy-go-lucky psychopath who is always a credible threat.And the action is terrific - lots of it, spectacular, beautiful, and clearly involving the actors a lot of the time, it makes this film a most enjoyable roller coaster ride (or white water rafting ride, I should say), and a movie which should have a higher profile than it has.

In Meryl Streep's astonishingly awards-packing filmography, this film has no chance to be singled out (not even among top 20 maybe), it actually botched the chance of Meryl's Oscar nomination that year (after a surprisingly gratifying Golden Globe nomination), I think it is its skin-deep kernel and the entertainment-first priority sabotaged it, if only speaking of the cast, Meryl's acting is completely Oscar-worthy. From A to Z, this intense adventure thriller holds one's breath tight with its suspenseful aura and splendid river torrent scenes, however the throwaway adrenalin-thrusting doesn't guarantee the same amount aftertaste, there are a touch indelible plot-holes emerging into my mind, which I assure you it is not a pleasant feeling (still, it's much better than most annoying pop-corn movies which I cannot even fluently commit myself to the moment). Meryl proves once again that she is the most versatile actress if not in the world, at least in Hollywood. The sports/action area is a rare attempt, yet she did most of her stunts, which is surely not able to be learnt from acting classes I suppose.With respect to the fore-mentioned skin-deep kernel, I have a hunch that both feminist and non-feminist would feel offended on account of in one hand the female protagonist's tough prevalence over her husband would exasperate man's ego, in the other hand, the inward- for-no-reason husband eventually resurrected his role-model father/husband image would be too obvious to feel empathetic (especially after a ludicrous rescue ploy). Poor David Strathairn, he had tried his best to save this badly-designed character. As for poor Kevin Bacon, he has been vying for an Oscar nomination since then, still in vain. (I would have taken Susan Sarandon's nomination for THE CLIENT to Meryl and also given one to the viciously- charming Kevin Bacon).

For a conventional Hollywood adventure story, THE RIVER WILD isn't bad at all. While it lacks the rawness of similarly-themed independent fare and the kind of twists and surprises you'd expect from the best this genre has to offer, it tells the story it sets out to tell with a large amount of success, mainly thanks to the lean script and no-nonsense pacing. Much of the action comes from a series of spectacular white-water rafting sequences in which the stunt team are really put through their paces. These mark the film's highlight. The human plot, involving a couple of hostage-takers, is less spectacular, but the film still gets by thanks to the calibre of the cast.Meryl Streep, although a little too earnest in some places for my liking, takes plaudits as the outdoors expert who has to use her wits to survive both nature and the evils of mankind. Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly are fine as the no-good criminals, and Benjamin Bratt bags a nice little role as a good-guy ranger. Youngster Joe Mazzello is a more mature presence than in the previous year's JURASSIC PARK, and David Straithairn (THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM) gets to have some fun as the straight-laced father forced into becoming a hero. Okay, so you know the outcome from the outset (and in a 12-certificate family adventure nothing THAT bad is ever going to happen), but this is nonetheless a mildly entertaining little movie.