Review of The River Wild (1994) by Martin D — 29 Jun 2011

It,s a pretty good flick,all the actors is good in there rolls,it's worth watching..A Boston couple, Gail (Meryl Streep) and Tom (David Strathairn) are having marital problems, due to Tom's inability to spend time with his family because of his work as an architect. Gail, a rafting expert, decides to take their son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello) on a holiday rafting down the Salmon River in Idaho, along with their pet dog. Their infant daughter Willa(Stephanie Sawyer) accompanies them to Gail's parents' house in Idaho. At the last minute, just when they're about to leave for an almost week-long rafting trip, Tom joins them. As they are setting off, they meet a couple of other rafters, Wade (Kevin Bacon) and Terry (John C. Reilly), who appear to be friendly. Thus Gail, Tom and Roarke, the three leave for the rafting trip, leaving Willa behind to be taken care of by Gail's parents.

After a day's rafting, the family make camp for the night, but Tom continues to work on his laptop computer rather than entering fully into the experience. This agitates Roarke, who thinks that his father doesn't really seem to realise he's away from Boston. The family is joined by Wade and Terry who help to celebrate Roarke's birthday the same night. Gail slowly becomes friendly with Wade. However, after a while Wade begins acting suspiciously and Gail decides it would be best to part ways. During the morning's rafting, Wade reveals to Roarke that they have a gun with them. As they raft down the river the parents discuss an exit strategy that will allow them to leave the two men behind, and at lunch they attempt to leave on their raft and get away before Wade and Terry realize what is going on....