Movie · 1994 · Adventure, Thriller, Drama · 1h 51m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 3.2/10 (54.6K ratings)
The vacation is over.
Overview
Gail and Tom Hartman are struggling to stay together and decide to take a white-water rafting holiday adventure in Montana for their son Roarke's 10th birthday, only to meet up with a pair of mysterious men whose desperation grows, turning their vacation into a nightmare.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.2/10
IMDb: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 64%
Metacritic: 63
TMDB: 6.5/10
Director
Curtis Hanson
Production
The Turman-Foster Company, Universal Pictures
Cast
Meryl Streep, David Strathairn, Kevin Bacon, John C. Reilly, Joseph Mazzello, Benjamin Bratt, William Lucking, Stephanie Sawyer, Elizabeth Hoffman, Victor Galloway, Diane Delano, Thomas F. Duffy, Paul Cantelon, Glenn Morshower
Curator Review
Verdict
A sturdy 90s survival-thriller with real tension, scenic location work, and a strong central performance from Meryl Streep. It’s not especially deep, but the rafting set pieces and escalating home-invasion-on-the-river premise make it an easy recommendation for thriller fans.
Best for
fans of 90s studio thrillers
viewers who like outdoor survival suspense
Meryl Streep admirers
people who enjoy charismatic-villain cat-and-mouse stories
Skip if
you want a highly original or twist-heavy thriller
you dislike mid-90s melodramatic character writing
you’re looking for a more intense or brutal survival film
Overview
The River Wild works best as a clean, efficient piece of mainstream suspense: a family vacation turns into a white-knuckle ordeal, and the movie knows how to keep the pressure on. Curtis Hanson stages the rafting passages with clarity and momentum, so the danger feels physical rather than generic.
Worth noting
Meryl Streep gives the film its center of gravity, playing the role with enough intelligence and grit to make the survival beats land. Kevin Bacon is also a big part of the appeal, bringing a slippery, unsettling charm that keeps the threat alive even when the script leans familiar.
Bottom line
It’s a little broad in places and occasionally feels like a prestige thriller trying to be a crowd-pleaser, but that’s also part of its charm. If you want a glossy 90s adventure-thriller with real craft, strong scenery, and solid star power, this is an easy watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
sydney (5★) · 495 likes
very few people have ever been as beautiful as meryl in this movie
Adam Nayman (3.5★) · 271 likes
A movie thrilling
matt lynch (3.5★) · 214 likes
Has no trouble slotting into my general theory that going outside in the first place is inadvisable, but if I'm going river rafting at all it's sure as hell going to be with Meryl Streep.
Discussed on Episode 9 of The Suspense is Killing Us.
Justin LaLiberty (3.5★) · 191 likes
ridiculous that Meryl was nominated for an Oscar twenty one times and one of them wasn’t for her total boss performance here
kevintporter (3.5★) · 186 likes
Me when Jerry Goldsmith plays vaguely ethnic flutes in the score while Meryl talks about what vision quests mean: 😑
I was super into this movie when I thought it was gonna be a movie about an architect rube getting absolutely cucked by Kevin Bacon. What the movie ended up being was still very fun! Rapids stunts!
Is this what the 1994 equivalent of a Marvel movie was?? Imagine an action movie coming out in 2021 starring people that look… more