The River Why (2010)

Studio: Image
Theatrical Release:
Blu Ray Release: November 8th 2011
Rated: PG-13
Review by Craig Sorensen




Augustine (or Gus as he prefers to be called, lest he appear to be homosexual) lives in the shadow of his famous fisherman father (is there really such a thing?) played by William Hurt (of Altered States) and mother (Kathleen Quinlan of Nightmare In Blood).  Tired of dealing with his parent’s crap, Gus (Zach Gilford of SUPER) runs away to live in the woods and fish.  Then I guess he goes on a voyage of self discovery and meets a few ‘quirky’ characters and a hot girl who is also great at fishing.  Everyone is great at fishing.

I guess if you’re into fishing this movie is gonna be fucking great.  For everyone else, eh...
I don’t have anything against fishing really.  I haven’t done it in probably 20 years but I usually had fun.  But fishing isn’t the most exciting thing to do.  At best fishing is a form of meditation.  It gives you time to sit, in the quiet, and think.  Just sit quietly and commune with nature, which can be nice.  So, it’s not exciting but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s un-cinematic.  But I don’t think that this is the way to go about it.

The River Why - Clip 1

Look, I think that this script is awful.  There I said it.  It takes everything that should be subtle about a film that, really, seems like it’s about fishing as meditation and makes it as blunt as possible.  It takes an act that is quiet, subtle and private and forces it into the script in the most ham-fisted way possible, narration.  Now I’m not against narration per se.  I’m not one of those ‘never ever use narration-show not tell’ assholes (I’m a completely different kind of asshole).  I’ve seen some great films with narration (Wilder uses narration to great effect).  But you have to really be on your fucking game if you’re going to try to use it.  Whoever wrote this stuff (there are three credited screenwriters) was not on their fucking game.  Here, let me give you my favorite example, “There’s just nothing like the feel of a trout dancing through a river, making your pole pulse like a heart in your hands.  It does to your hands what  dreams of eternity do to your heart.”  What the fuck is that?  What the hell does that even mean?  What isn’t explicitly said in the narration is explicitly shoehorned into the film by a ‘quirky’ character named Titus (Dallas Robert of the dumb remake of 3:10 to Yuma), Titus I guess is supposed to be a philosopher as he talks a lot about destiny and a creator (at this point in the film I yelled ‘Oh fuck, is this a religious film’ and almost shut it off).

The River Why - Clip 2

Anyway, the film does look gorgeous.  There is some great nature photography going on here.  And when the film shuts up it’s great to look at.  The acting is good for the most part.  Zach Gilford does a decent job with the film.  He has to read all that narration and try to make it sound less contrived so my hats off to him.  Amber Heard is pretty good as Eddy (get it, he has a girl’s name and she has a boy’s name!  Wacky!) and is one of the bright points in the film.  I was really looking forward to William ‘Devine’ Devane (as everyone should) but he’s only in one scene so I feel a bit cheated.  I don’t know what’s going on with William Hurt though.  He does the whole movie with a weird accent that fluctuates from Aristocratic American to English to German from scene to scene.  A fun drinking game (if you get bored watching this with your grandparents) would be to do a shot every time his accent changes.

The River Why - Clip 3

Image’s new Blu Ray of the film looks great.  It was shot on a Red Camera so it should look pretty good in High Definition.  It’s presented in it’s original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.  To my eyes I didn’t see any issues with compression or edge enhancement.  Not that I was expecting it but I had to have something to look for while I was bored.  The soundtrack (DTS-HD 5.1 in case you’re curious) sounded great as well.  And I guess it should as the film doesn’t seem to give you any reprise from either narration or music.  Extras include a selection of cast & crew interviews and the trailer.  That’s it.