Details
Movie Description
In THE RIVER WILD, Gail (Meryl Streep), a former river guide, plans a white-water rafting trip to celebrate her son Roarke's (Joseph Mazzello) birthday and patch up her troubled marriage to her workaholic husband, Tom (David Strathairn). As the family begins their river adventure, they meet Wade (Kevin Bacon), a novice rafter with a magnetic personality. When the family finds Wade and his friend, Terry (John C. Reilly), stranded and abandoned by their guide, Gail and Tom decide to help them navigate the rapids. However, family fun turns to terror when Wade and Terry show their true colors--they're really criminals trying to evade the police following a major heist. To make matters worse, their escape route requires that they run the Gauntlet, deadly rapids where three rivers converge in violently tumultuous waters. This taut thriller from director Curtis Hanson (BAD INFLUENCE, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL) features Streep in her first role as an action-adventure heroine, while Bacon is truly menacing as the psychotic Wade, a desperate criminal in over his head.
Synopsis
In this tense action thriller, a couple take their son on a white-water rafting trip in hopes that they can patch up their troubled marriage. While on the trip, the family is hijacked by a pair of criminals who need the wife's rafting expertise to get them down the river.
Film Notes
Theatrical release date: September 1994.
Filmed in Montana, Oregon, and Massachusetts.
The MCA/Universal video release included a 90-second public service announcement about protecting America's rivers.
Industry Reviews
"...A pulse-pounding thrill ride....Streep is strong, sassy and looser than she has ever been onscreen..."
Rolling Stone - p.155-6 - Peter Travers (10/20/1994)
"...[Hanson] has the makings of a lean, mean thriller....[Streep] captures both Gail's terror and her exhilaration..."
New York Times - p.C8 - Janet Maslin (09/30/1994)
"...[Bacon] makes a fine counterpoint to [Streep]..." - Recommended
Premiere - p.146 - Josh Rottenberg (04/01/1995)
"...Awe-inspiring white water thrills..." -- Rating: B
Entertainment Weekly - pp.74-5 - Glenn Kenny (03/10/1995)
"...THE RIVER WILD takes your breath away two times over....Streep has taken this opportunity to once again rewrite the rules..."
Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan (09/30/1994)
Quotations
"The vacation is over." -- marketing line for the film
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