The River Wild Movie Review

The River Wild (1994)

Rent The River Wild on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Denis O'Neill
Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, John C. Reilly, Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Mazzello
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
A family struggling to stay together decides to take a rafting vacation, only to meet up with a pair of killers while navigating a spectacularly violent river.

Verdict
It offers decent enough thrills, but it's a typical 90s action thriller that neither offers nor provides much. The setting is unique, but the plot is survive the river and criminals and that wears thin quickly. It's a ridiculous premise where you wonder how the criminals ever planned to succeed. Their scheme consists of, I hope we get incredibly lucky many times over.
Skip it.

Review
While this feels like a very 90s movie, I don't think it would get made to day. Even being banished to streaming only seems like too much promotion.

This is a white water rafting family trip where the husband Tom (David Strathairn) claims he has too much work. It's the third year in a row he's bailed on the big family trip at the last minute which seems like trouble. They're going rafting as mom Gail (Meryl Streep) is a rafting guide.

While Tom does show up, there's a fracture between him and his son, Roarke (Joseph Mazzello). Tom falls out of the raft very quickly after not listening to Gail, who is an expert. That only underscores Roarke's disappointment in him. But, we've got Wade (Kevin Bacon) to fill that hole. Wade seems suspicious from the beginning, but from Roarke's point of view Wade seems cool. While both Gail and Tom are wary, Wade seems just nice enough. It's easy to guess Wade is up to something.

David Strathairn, Meryl Streep, Joseph Mazzello play Tom, Gail, Roarke

Wade and his gang's plan was to evade capture by rafting. It's a premise that works well for a movie but realistically lacks logic. No one in Wade's group knows how to raft, and this river is very dangerous. There's no way Wade was guaranteed to find a capable guide down river. He stumbles into Gail purely by accident. Without a guide there's no way his escape would work. Even with a guide, this movie warns us that people have died going down this river.

David Strathairn, Kevin Bacon play Tom, Wade

This provides plenty of tense moments as Wade must evade capture and make sure passers by don't realize he's kidnapped a family. Gail, Tom, and Roarke don't have much opportunity to escape when trapped on a raft with criminals. Tom gets a redemption arc, put in a position to save the family.

It's a standard thriller, well, sub-standard and mindless. The setting is unique but very limiting. In the 90s this was all an action thriller needed to do; provide a couple of thrills and villains. It doesn't hold up today. I want a thriller that poses some questions, that puts me in the situation. With this, I can't help but think they'd all drown in the river instead of having this big adventure. It doesn't help that action alternates between close and wide shots which are staged and stunt doubles. The physical stakes we're told are dire, but it never seems that dangerous. The emotional stakes are completely tacked on. I hoped the raft would capsize just to get out of this early.