Film Review – River Wild (2023)

1994’s “The River Wild” was a traditional thriller from director Curtis Hanson, who aimed to bring a little Hitchcock to the great outdoors with his vision for suspense during a white-water rafting trip. The script was tight and open-world locations evocative, and the production had Meryl Streep to inspire audience curiosity, with the venerated actress in the midst of an experimental phase, starring in big studio projects, exploring genre work. “The River Wild” earned its success, offering tremendous entertainment value and sharp filmmaking, but, apparently, time has come to revisit the title. “River Wild” isn’t a sequel, and it’s not really a remake, with screenwriters Mike Nguyen Le and Ben Ketai (who also directs) reworking the basic rafting premise for a much darker take on rising violence on a river. It’s a low-budget, Streep-less endeavor with limited goals, and while it doesn’t match the thrills of the 1994 effort, “River Wild” has compelling grimness, refreshing brevity (running 85 minutes), and contains a few surges of panic to keep it involving. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com