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The River

1984

Mark Rydell

Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek, Shane Bailey, Becky Jo Lynch ...

6.1

2,734

Drama Mae and Tom Garvey (Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson, respectively) are farmers at a time (the mid-1980s) when bankers, real estate agents, and nature itself threaten to destroy their way of life in THE RIVER, a powerful film about the fragility of the American dream. When the local river floods and nearly destroys the farms around it, hardship hits the area. The Garveys are also at odds with the local power authority and one of its chief ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"[It] has a meticulously detailed physical production and, from time to time, is acted with passion by its cast. Yet its ideas are so profoundly muddled that the film must run mainly on sentimentality."	NEU
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"In the absence of any real dramatic development, Rydell inflates a chain of minor incidents into towering tragedies"	NEG
United States	Richard Corliss Time	"[Mark Rydell] knows how to keep this stuff moving, if not how to make it moving"	NEU
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"'The River' feels too contrived in comparison with the genuine emotion of ['Places in the Heart'] and the authentic politics of 'Country' (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Jason Caro Radio Times	"Well-shot, but fairly inconsequential (...) [Gibson] offers a strong performance, but is hampered by a superficial script (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Chris Peachment Time Out	"Vilmos Zsigmond contributes his usual handsome photography, but this is one river that seems unlikely to run."	NEG

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