The River Wild

I've been fortunate enough to catch it on TV every now and then, tonight is such a semi-rare occasion. I like the movie a lot, Meryl Streep does an amazing job, as does Kevin Bacon, scaringly amazing. The movie is captivating, the effects - that as I later found out weren't even effects - are realistic.

I've seen it for the first time when I was maybe 5 or 7ish or so. My whole household is huge on Meryl Streep resulting in me seeing almost every Streep movie, most of them boring me to death. The River Wild was always an exception! It reminds me a lot of Marilyn Monroe's The River of No Return - without the songs and the tackyness. And OMG for the first time ever I noticed that even Catwoman hottie Benjamin Pratt is in it.


The movie shows the interesting journey of a family that is going on a vacation, just canoing through the US/Canadian border backcountry. The couple's marriage is crumbling under the fathers workaholic tendencies and the mother's high expectations. While at the beginning of the movie they act like most parents, fighting as soon as their son is out of sight and trying to push out the inevitable divorce that the viewer knows in the first scene is waiting for them in the near future. On the canoeing trip they met three men and their son Roarke easily makes friends with Wade, the leader of the three men much to his parents dismay. They know that something is up with the men but don't give another thought to it as they are heading out into the nature.

Even on this trip the father can't leave his work behind and Roarke starts to see Wade more and more as a father figure. They keep meeting up on the river and later on even on the shore. By that time the men met the family this time they are only two. The third one is gone and now Wade and his friend don't know how to get down the dangerous stream. Due to her son's insistence Gail, a former guide on the river, agrees to take them down the river to the first safe place where they can leave the river and return to civilization. While traveling together with the two men the Hartman's notice more and more that there's something off about their new 'friends', however the straw that breaks the camel's back is Wade watching Gail as she skinnydips. It's a creepy scene in the dark with lightning and gentle rain pouring down her naked body as she steps into the water. All the while the audience sees Wade leaning against a tree, the music contributes greatly to the atmosphere as well. Suddenly the dog starts barking, alarming Gail that there's something or rather someone that isn't supposed to be there... Then with a bolt of lightning we see Wade clearly standing against a tree watching with a sinister and undeniably horny grin plastered all over his face.

As they try to escape the following day they are caught. The father is beaten up, Gail is wrestled down and her son stroke hard across the face. Now the family's on a trip for survival, in the course of the movie the father is shot at, the dog is chased away and one of Gail's childhood friends that is a ranger now is shot in the chest and pushed into the river(A scene I personally can't even watch today, it just disgusted and freaked me out as a little girl and it still transforms me back to that little girl).

For everyone that hasn't seen the whole movie I won't spoil it, but the ending is utterly satisfying.

It's almost a little like Out of Africa, the epic lovestory with the fantastic countryside images. Living in Canada now I would have never believed that this country could be so beautiful.
Despite the scenes of frightening violence this movie should definitely be shown to children, of younger and older children alike. It conveys the ideas and morals of family, loyalty and bravery. It shows what a mother would do for her child, a role Meryl Streep has always excelled in, would it be her two Academy Award winning performances in Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice or in the critically aclaimed A cry in the Dark. The audience really feels how torn Gail is, help the men escape their legal punishment and save her family or risk her family to take revenge on the men that threated her life and killed others?