Review of My Own Private Idaho (1991) by Elvira B — 03 May 2008

Gus Van Sant can sometimes get on my nerves, but this movie makes me love him. So far the best one of his film I've seen.

I've never actually read the Shakespeare play this was inspired by, but I was able to "feel" the Shakespearian character to it... the dialogue is very poetic and beautiful, especially for a movie about hustlers et al. Van Sant makes their world beautiful beyond words; just something simple and beautiful and heartbreaking.

The story is really about Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu Reeves). They work as male prostitutes in PORTLAND OREGON. They're pretty unhappy but they survive. And they're best friends. Scott is the heir to a very large fortune, while Mike is just poor and forever doomed. Their situations are thus always perpendicular to each other... they meet at this one unfortunate point but follow different directions. It's a heartbreaking fact, given that Mike is in love with Scott... Scott feels differently. In the end, their paths don't change, but the process of realization is quite worth seeing.

Like most of Van Sant movies, this one doesn't really have an identifiable "target". I mean, it doesn't really have a "meaning", beyond portraying this doomed friendship in the most lyrical way possible.

The two best things about this film are the beautiful cinematography and River Phoenix's performance. I mean, I was literally out of breath for a little while during certain scenes. There is one -now I consider it my favorite ever- in which Mike tells Scott how he feels... and it's so real and tender and at the same time he sounds so wounded and kind of detached... it's incredible how a single person can convey all those feelings in such little words. Keanu Reeves was good as well, a bit stiff from time to time, but certainly River Phoenix justifies this movie's single existence.