The River Wild

The River Wild may be the season's most exhilarating family entertainment. [30 Sep 1994, p.C1]

Hanson's real strength as a filmmaker is subtle suspense, and his film is even more eerie when his characters are out of the water. His setup of the situation is a small masterpiece of visual storytelling, and he sustains the psychological tension. [30 Sep 1994]

The River Wild is simply a terrific nail biter, with the same constant, misleadingly tranquil jeopardy that give whitewater rafters such a charge. [30 Sep 1994, p.6]

A tense, sharply made thriller about a family held hostage during a river rafting vacation. Read full review

Having abandoned for a while the portrayal of real people, Streep demonstrates here that what great actresses do is show us ordinary people in an extraordinary light. Read full review

As thrillers go, The River Wild is a cut below a "white-knuckler," but it still has its share of spills and chills. Read full review

Curtis Hanson (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) directed this 1994 thriller effectively from a fairly routine script by Denis O'Neill; what really makes this movie worth seeing are the stunning Oregon and Montana locations (filmed in 'Scope), as well as Streep's sexy pluck in playing the most capable and resourceful character around. Read full review

While The River Wild pays lip service to equally weighty ideas, in the end it’s merely an agitated but tidy ride. Read full review

Another 1990s domestic parable chastising workaholic dads, The River Wild also functions as a gorgeous travelogue and a Meryl Streep action film. Director Curtis Hanson sure packs a lot into one river trip. Read full review

The sterling and reliable Strathairn brings stoic dignity to the husband's role, young Mazzello takes advantage of the chance to show more here than he did in Jurassic Park and Curtis Hanson's direction is expeditious and unpretentious. But River Wild is a Streeporama, and Streep at the flood tide is something to see. [20 Sep 1994, p.61]

The thrills and spills are often fun, despite their predictability. Watching this movie doesn't seem so much like white-water rafting as it does like taking a theme-park thrill ride that you've already taken a few dozen times. [30 Sep 1994, p.25]

The River Wild is not a picture that tries to break new ground or even part fresh waters. Yet it is a crisp and exciting exercise, and while it may not be a watershed in Streep's career, she shows that you can take the plunge into an action movie and go swimming without going slumming. [30 Sep 1994, p.03]

Filmed in Oregon and Montana by a first-rate crew, The River Wild puts you in the hot seat of its white-water climax, and through a combination of deft camera work, snappy editing and genuine derring-do, the stellar cast is right there with you. Even when you know it's filmmaking trickery, you'll wish you'd brought a wet suit. [30 Sep 1994, p.H3]

The River Wild is more of a family movie, a thrill-ride where all the crazier dips and turns are straightened out by the ride's end. Hanson keeps the action clean, the tensions simmering. As a family movie, it's actually pretty good. [30 Sep 1994, p.C]

This white-water thriller by the director of The Hand That Rocked the Cradle isn't especially inventive, but the cinematography is first-rate and so is Streep's performance. [30 Sep 1994, p.14]

The River Wild is an exhilarating thriller, and Streep is memorable as a former whitewater river guide who has to summon up all of her old skills to save her life and the lives of her husband (David Straithairn) and son (Joseph Mazzello). [30 Sep 1994, p.3G]

River may not be high art, but it is the perfect high old time for audiences in the mood to be tossed into the spin cycle for a pulse-pounding thrill ride. Read full review

Bacon scores strongly, but it is Streep's beautifully natural, unshowy performance which keeps the film on course, even when the machinations of the plot become very rocky indeed. Read full review

In spite of the fact that everything turns out exactly as you think it will, director Curtis (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) Hanson's movie, written by Denis O'Neill, is a tense, satisfying entertainment. [30 Sep 1994, p.69]

The violence is muted and discreet, never appalling, and the sexual tension between Streep and Bacon has been dialed way down. What they want is what they get: a nice, tidy, polite thriller. [30 Sep 1994]

Bacon is menacing enough, but his character, as written, lacks the shading and substance that made the villains of past Hanson films so interesting. Without the complexities, The River Wild is a so-so waterborne melodrama that compares unfavorably to Deliverance and even Cape Fear. [30 Sep 1994, p.47]

If watched from a mildly amused, forgiving distance, the movie has its enjoyable moments—good and campy. Read full review

Exciting in parts, Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon doing their best, but arc of suspense doesn't quite bring you to the edge of your seats. Read full review

[Hanson] does another deft job of conveying a heroine's secret anxieties, at least during the first half of his story. Read full review

Most of The River Wild moves at an annoyingly maladroit, stop-and-go tempo — it feels too much like a camping trip — and almost nothing that happens is very believable. Read full review

The River Wild is one of the movies you want to play along with, you really do, but it gets so many details subtly wrong that finally you lose patience and turn on it. Read full review

The film would be utterly banal without the novelty of the high-toned Streep in an action role. Read full review

It's her first action flick, and Meryl Streep ends up with a watered-down script: the metaphoric journey is without resonance and the actual journey is without thrills. The River Wild is awfully tame. [30 Sep 1994]

Director Chuck Hanson, who did The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, provides many pretty-postcard shots of Oregon and Montana. But he should have been the hand that rocks the raft instead of holding off on most of the foamy feats until the final minutes. [30 Sep 1994, p.5D]

There's nothing to think about once the watery plot has run its course, and even Streep's plucky performance isn't enough to keep it steadily afloat. [30 Sep 1994, p.13]

The trailer for the film is more gripping than the feature itself. Read full review

The River Wild is simply a procession of banal, dull situations that add up to nothing. [30 Sep 1994, p.G4]