The River Wild *** (1994, Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, John C Reilly, Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Mazzello) – Classic Movie Review 3243

Director Curtis Hanson’s exciting 1994 action adventure crime thriller is a posh-end item, with a classy cast. Dennis O’Neill’s screenplay might spend time providing atmosphere, building character and developing dialogue, but it delivers all the tension and thrills you need.

You never expected to see Meryl Streep in an action film, but here she is shooting the rapids in a fast-flowing white-water raft adventure thriller.

Streep’s Gail Hartman is feuding with her Boston architect husband Tom (David Strathairn) through his inability to spend time with his family because of his work. Gail is a white-water rafting expert and so decides to take their son, Roarke (Joseph Mazzello), on a holiday rafting trip down the Salmon River in Idaho, along with their dog, Maggie. Just when they are about to leave for the week-long trip, Tom joins them.

But they get much, much more than they bargained for after, as they are setting off, they encounter two inexperienced rafters, Wade (Kevin Bacon) and Terry ( John C Reilly), who at first appear to be friendly. Later, they need help but turn out to be escaped armed robbers, one of them the wild psycho fleeing convict called Wade who then relentlessly terrorises them.

Director Hanson’s far-fetched, old-fashioned 1994 action adventure thriller is a lot of fun and keeps its head above water thanks to the spunky Streep’s believability as the star character and Robert Elswit’s lovely exterior cinematography of the fantastic scenery. The river is quite a star, too.

For most of the excitingly action-packed film Streep and her family are fleeing from Bacon, who starts as a charmer till his identity is revealed and then comes on like an unstoppable bogeyman. Bacon makes this fun, too, credible as both nice and nasty. Again, it’s called acting but Bacon is good at it.

Also in the cast are Benjamin Bratt as park ranger named Johnny, Elizabeth Hoffman and Victor H Galloway.

The Kootenay River valley used as a location in the film. It is  a major river in south-eastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern parts of the US states of Montana and Idaho.

The film was initially scored by Maurice Jarre, but the producers replaced his work with a score by Jerry Goldsmith. Carrie Fisher was an uncredited script doctor on the film.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3243

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