Review of My Own Private Idaho (1991) by Ryan A — 30 Dec 2007

'My Own Private Idaho' is the intricate and inventive story about a male prostitute with narcelepsy from a broken home trying to track down his mother, from veteran filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting). I was lucky enough to catch it on HBO last night at 12:45 a.m. I had wanted to see 'My Own Private Idaho' for a while, but none of the video stores around me carried it and I couldn't find it anywhere on DVD or VHS. As much as I wanted to see it, I realized I had to wait till it was on a movie channel, unfortunately. Last night when I was flipping through channels late, I spotted it and knew I had to watch it. I had high expectations for it, and I have to say I was a little disappointed, but I still thought it was a pretty great film. I mean, I really love independent films with strong performances, and for me, the late great River Phoenix's performance as Mike Waters in this made the movie for me, along with some great writing, music and directing from Van Sant.

The film follows Mike Waters (River Phoenix), a young dumb broke male hustler who's trying to get through life and feed his slight drug addiction hooking with mostly men. Mike struggles with narcelepsy, and throughout the entire movie Mike keeps drifting off into unconsciousness when any stress is brought upon him. During Mike's harsh and dark journey through his so-called life on the streets, he meets another male hustler, Scott (Keanu Reeves) who's the runaway son of a wealthy and powerful senator. Mike and Scott become fast friends, and later on get mixed up in a band of other young gay male prostitutes led by Bob Pigeon (William Richert), an older gentleman who is kind of like a father to the boys in some kind of twisted and perverted way. The two (Mike and Scott) go on adventures together, and try to track down Mike's estranged mother when Mike finds out she's still alive from his could-be birth father, Richard Waters (played by James Russo). Scott and Mike's search for Mike's mom eventually leads them to Rome, where Scott falls in love with a beautiful Italian girl, Carmella (Chiara Casselli), which later encourages Scott to clean up his act, re-unite with his father, and inherit a fortune. Gus Van Sant's screenplay is loosely based on Shakespeare's historical production of Henry IV, and there are some scenes in the film that produce strong Shakespearian qualities along with dialogue, that I found enjoyable but kind of distracting from the story.

The finest quality of Van Sant's modern adaptation of Henry IV, 'My Own Private Idaho', is without a doubt the acting. Like I said before, the best performance by a longshot of the film is River Phoenix's haunting and empowering one. This is without a doubt the tragically short-lifed River Phoenix's very best screen performance, and it almost shocks me he wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award for it. Phoenix achieves perfection in his role, really making you not only sympathize with his character, but understand him and his actions to some degree. A lot of critics raved about River Phoenix in this, and they should have. Keanu Reeves' acting however, is a different story. Reeves is such a poor performer in anything he is, but he really pisses on the movie (to put it so cruel) as much as he can. I really didn't expect anything more then a horrible performance from Keanu, but I was disappointed he was cast in such a pivotal and important role, that requires an actor with a lot of range. River Phoenix more then outshines Keanu Reeves in every scene in the film, even when Phoenix's character is asleep from his narcelepsy. William Richert does a fine job as Bob (the leader of the young hustlers/thieves/drug addicts, that kind of resembles the character of Fagin in Oliver Twist). James Russo is dazzling in the very short screen time he has, and German actor Udo Kier, is interesting as one of Mike and Scott's highly neurotic and creepy clients who puts on a musical dance for them using hotel lamps that has to be one of the most out-there film scenes since Dean Stockwell and Dennis Hopper's duet of 'In Dreams' in 1984's 'Blue Velvet'. I have to say I wasn't too impressed with Italian actress Chiara Casselli's performance in this, and although she was nice to look at, she really didn't pull it off for me. The film's music and cinematography is first-rate, and Gus Van Sant's screenplay is terrific. Van Sant does a excellent job directing as well. Van Sant really does a meticolous and careful job bringing this risqué and unsettling, yet poignant and beautifully crafted Shakespearian based tale about the friendship and hardship of two young male hustlers in Portland on a mission to find themselves.

In closing, I didn't find 'My Own Private Idaho' to be as magnificent as I had hoped, but I really did find it insightful and a work of art. The film is enjoyable sometimes, but at times it's very dark and disturbing and kind of makes you uncomfortable. That's not said to take away anything from this extraordinary motion picture, because the film has to be unsettling because the story and whole point of the movie is unsettling and upsetting. I recommend 'My Own Private Idaho' to people who appreciate the art of film, and don't get disturbed or unsettled easy. Grade: B+.