Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The River Wild Blu-ray Movie Review

"Then go ahead. Don't keep telling me how tough you are, just show me."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 16, 2011

Stop me if this sounds familiar. A tough but tender mother struggles to hold her family together as a daunting crisis unfolds. Fighting to keep her wits about her, she faces her darkest fears, deals with her insecurities and taps into a dormant caldera of mama-lion ferocity to overcome a dangerous, dominant alpha male. Her husband, a negligent businessman and emotionally divested father, undergoes an evolution of his own. Initially an impotent weakling, dear ol' dad digs deep and discovers the fighter, lover and father buried beneath years of office paperwork and management meetings. Ring any bells? The River Wild is just one of many, many gender recalibration thrillers that surfaced in the '80s and '90s. Women weren't just housewives and mothers anymore, men were rapidly divorcing themselves from traditional hunter/gatherer roles and families were drastically different than they were just twenty years before. And Hollywood responded as Hollywood always responds: by flooding theaters with socially conscious fables in which crumbling families have to reconcile their differences and overcome the challenges of the changing times. The River Wild isn't the best of its ilk, nor is it immune to harsh criticism. It's simply a decent '90s family-in-peril thriller worth its weight in popcorn.

"If the raft gets caught in there, it gets sucked under the falls. Swimming? Swimming is beside the point."

Experienced rafter Gail Hartman (Meryl Streep, Doubt) once survived the infamous Gauntlet, a deadly stretch of whitewater rapids on the Salmon River. Now several years later, the Gauntlet is closed to the public, amateur and professional alike. Not that Gail minds. With her husband Tom (David Strathairn, The Bourne Ultimatum) and her son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello, The Pacific) in tow, she isn't interested in harrowing pursuits, just the calm waters of the Salmon more suited to her young boy's budding skill set. Before they set out on the river though, they meet a seemingly friendly man named Wade (Kevin Bacon, Frost/Nixon) and his mild-mannered friend Terry (John C. Reilly, Cyrus), a pair of casual nature enthusiasts preparing to embark on a trip downriver as well. Of course it isn't long until Wade and Terry show their true colors. Brandishing a gun, a healthy temper and a desperate need to evade the authorities, the fugitives take Gail and her family hostage, beat Tom into submission and demand that Gail guide them down the river so they can make their escape. Quick and easy, right? Not with the glacier waters of the Gauntlet standing in the way of the criminals' freedom.

Streep, Strathairn and Bacon keep The River Wild afloat even when its less-than-convincing third-act plot points threaten to drag it under. Never mind the fact that Tom outpaces Gail's raft on foot and gets far enough ahead of her to set a trap for their captors. (Why then didn't the whole group just huff it, raft and all, through the forest?) Never mind the fact that Wade could have used Gail's family in a hundred better ways to ensure her cooperation. Never mind the predictable plot points that often transform director Curtis Hanson's thriller into a rote exercise in genre pic filmmaking. (A loyal dog, a knowledge of sign language, the dimmest river ranger the Hartman's could hope to encounter, a villain who can't swim, one last bullet... you get the idea.) Whatever the plot hole or contrivance, the cast's performances make it fairly easy to shrug off the film's more glaring flaws. Streep dons countless hats -- dutiful daughter, protective mother, wounded wife, sporty survivalist, vulnerable victim and empowered Hollywood heroine, just to name a few -- but manages to effortlessly inhabit each one and carefully transition from one to the next. Strathairn lends credibility to an otherwise conventional role and restraint to Tom's rekindled machismo. (In the hands of any other actor, Tom's scenes would have most likely been decidedly dull.) And Bacon? Bacon smirks, slithers and sinks his teeth into Wade's every sneer and outburst, turning threats into spine-tingling promises and heated reactions into violent responses.

Robert Elswit's unassuming cinematography and Hanson's hair-raising whitewater rafting scenes only sweeten the pot. Surprisingly, Streep and many of her castmates performed the majority of their own stunts; no fancy visual effects, no obvious doubles, no unsightly sleight of hand. Just actors braving the elements. Watching high-caliber A-listers duke it out with Nature herself injects palpable tension into what would have already been a series of intense scenes, and seeing the very-real fear and overwhelming awe in their eyes goes a long way toward redeeming The River Wild's shortcomings. And it's beautiful to boot. Elswit doesn't linger on sprawling vistas or burden Hanson's drama with sun-drenched, arthouse photography. He simply points, shoots and presents the breathtaking Montana and Oregon expanses as they are. In the end, some tightening would have served The River Wild well. If Denis O'Neill's screenplay and dialogue were as taut and authentic as Hanson's rafting scenes and the actors' performances, the film might just be a '90s classic. Instead, it's a solid, smartly cast thriller. Nothing more.

The River Wild Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The River Wild pushes upstream with an imperfect but spirited 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer. After a poorly contrasted opening, matters improve dramatically when Gail leaves Boston. Colors are a bit chilly but altogether natural, the film's shores and riverbeds are bright and inviting, and black levels, while less than spectacular, are deep and earthy. Detail is also noteworthy, even if some pronounced edge enhancement (and subsequent ringing) makes the ride a rocky one. Fine textures are respectable, object definition is sharp and satisfying, overall clarity is quite good (barring a few scenes that take place over a campfire) and a pleasant layer of grain is present at all times. Efficient encoding bolsters the experience and there isn't any unfortunate artifacting, banding, errant noise or other eyesores to report. (Some minor print marks appear on occasion, but never distract.) As it stands, The River Wild looks pretty good. Had the studio minted a brand new master though, one primed for the film's Blu-ray release (sans the DVD-era edge enhancement), it could have been ever better.

The River Wild Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

No serious qualms here. Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track delivers a thrilling lossless experience hindered only by the film's at-times dated '90s sound design. Dialogue is as crystal clear as Salmon River waters, prioritization is commendable and only a handful of lines sink instead of swim. ADR is a nuisance, but that's hardly the fault of the mix, and a few sound effects are rather thin and hollow compared to the rest of the soundscape. Again though, the studio's efforts are seldom called into question. The LFE channel embraces every roaring rapid and raging waterfall, the rear speakers are used to great effect to wrap the untamed wilderness around the listener, and engaging directionality and slick pans leave a lasting impression. And while the ever-tenuous balance between the various channels isn't always as impeccable as it could be, literally every criticism that stirred within my brain was quashed with a shrug of the shoulders and a simple response: "sounds like a '90s flick to me." Fans of the film will be more than satisfied with the results.

The River Wild Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The River Wild doesn't include any special features. Not even a theatrical trailer.

The River Wild Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The River Wild may be standard '90s fare, but it's good standard '90s fare. Streep pushes herself to then-unseen extremes, Strathairn lends gravitas to what could've easily been a thankless role and Bacon chews scenery with toothy glee as the film's Big Bad. Of course, Robert Elswit's cinematography and the film's harrowing rafting sequences certainly help. Universal's Blu-ray release is worth considering too. Its video transfer, though plagued by edge enhancement, is strong and its DTS-HD Master Audio track doesn't disappoint. There aren't any special features to speak of, but don't let that dampen your interest. At the very least, The River Wild warrants a rent.