River Wild (2023) (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 31, 2023
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Ben KetaiRelease Date(s)
2023 (August 1, 2023)Studio(s)
Universal 1440 Entertainment (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: F
Review
River Wild (not to be confused with 1994’s The River Wild) starts as a pleasurable weekend rafting trip but turns into an exercise in survival. A taut thriller that reveals the complexities of relationships during a journey along placid streams and down churning rapids pits five individuals against both man and nature.
Gray (Taran Killam) runs whitewater rafting tours down Idaho’s Salmon River. His sister, Joey (Leighton Meester), a city doctor, joins him on an excursion with paying customers Karissa (Olivia Swann) and Van (Eve Connolly). Also on the trip is Trevor (Adam Brody), Gray’s best friend since childhood, an experienced rafter whom Gray hired as his assistant following Trevor’s stint in prison. Trevor had planned to be on vacation but changed his mind and went along to help his friend. Joey seems uncomfortable with Trevor’s unexpected presence but doesn’t voice objections that will ruin the planned outing.
As they set out, all seems fine on the surface, but a sense of unease prevails as Joey, Gray, and Trevor exchange glances that suggest an uncomfortable history. The two customers are oblivious to all of this and eager to enjoy the exciting rafting experience. When they make camp the first night, Van suffers a bad head injury and begins to have seizures. Joey knows Van will die unless they to get her to a hospital as quickly as possible. They must get to a ranger station and call for help. The quickest way to the nearest station is along the river, necessitating a rigorous trip over punishing rapids. Time is of the essence.
Director/co-writer Ben Ketai has crafted an exciting saga of men and women in a remote area facing danger not only from nature but also from within their group. Tensions escalate as one bad situation leads to another, with lives in danger. The beautiful, pristine setting contrasts with dark goings-on as the attempt to get help backfires and worsens an already grave predicament.
Ketai is very good at heightening suspense with the unpredictability of the characters and a location that can be eerie thanks to its quiet, thick forests along the river. The screenplay doles out information about the three main characters gradually as the trip proceeds. For the most part, these revelations come as a surprise as suspicions arise, relationships become more complicated, and motivations shift from shady to sinister.
The photography of the raft navigating the rapids is exhilarating. These scenes were shot at locations in Hungary, Slovakia, and Bosnia, without benefit of CGI, making them all the more impressive. You can practically feel your stomach churn as the raft undergoes its roller-coaster passage, bouncing its passengers as they attempt to steady the craft, avoid rocks, and stay on board as they plunge down steep falls. The visuals on the river are stunning.
River Wild has a simple plot, and variations of it have been seen before in other pictures, but it is a first-class thriller. Meester, Killam and Brody are all excellent, with Brody exuding an enigmatic menace as Trevor, Killam’s Gray trying to be the voice of experience and reason, and Meester’s Joey tense but keeping calm as she uses her medical skills and intuition to help others and survive a terrifying ordeal.
River Wild was captured by director of photography Gevorg Dev Juguryan digitally in the ARRIRAW (4.5K) codec with Arri Alexa mini LF cameras and Cooke S7 Prime and Fujinon Premista zoom lenses, then presented in the widescreen aspect ratio of 2.00:1. The overall picture quality is sharp, with the photography of the raft on the river quite impressive, combining stationary, tracking, and high-angle shots to maximize drama. Complexions of the actors are rendered well, with Trevor’s facial tattoos projecting a creepy vibe. In later scenes, characters are dirty, their faces and body flecked with grime and mud. Van’s head injury is very bloody. In many scenes, actors are water-soaked. A scene around a campfire features the group of five with nothing but blackness all around them, a foreboding void.
The soundtrack is English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. There’s also a Spanish 5.1 DTS track available. Subtitle options include English SDH, Spanish, and French. Dialogue is clear. The sound of rushing water is a major, recurring effect. Struggles, people moaning in pain, characters running through the leaf-strewn forest, car engines, bodies falling onto rocks, and gun shots round out the major sound effects. The score by Tristan Clopet is appropriately tense and becomes increasingly frenetic as the pace quickens toward the last third of the film. A night scene around a campfire blends dialogue with the crackling flames.
There are no bonus features on this PG-13 rated Blu-ray release from Universal Pictures.
River Wild is not a perfect film, but it does an effective job of building tension by combining the main characters’ uneasy interpersonal relationships with whitewater thrills and a series of ominous developments that plague the journey. As mistrust escalates among the group and conditions become treacherous, the film draws you in for the perilous ride.
- Dennis Seuling