|
|
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
doesn't quite add-up, but still unforgettable, January 25, 2004
This was a great movie, but it's not quite the social indictment that it purports to be. Mostly it works on the power of its stars and some godawfully chilling mood music.Samson (AKA "John") is a not-so-gentle giant of a teen who impulsively strangles his girlfriend. Though the murder and murderer are quickly common knowledge to local high-school denizens, nobody immediately runs to the police. This doesn't keep just about everybody her age from gawking at her now stripped corpse when it's found along the river's edge. Various reasons keep Samson's peers from even alerting the police to the body - mostly they have to do with loyalty. In a bizarre twist, their loyalty stems not from Samson, but from his friend Layne, a local Death-Metal kid who is determined not to "narc" out one of his own. While the rest remain silent, Layne makes Samson's safety and escape his personal crusade. Matt (Keanu Reeves) stirs from the pack, and calls the police. At first a suspect (he can't explain to the police the delay) Matt's released, whereupon he pretends to help Layne keep Samson safe. Most of the film is confined to the late hours of a single night, when our characters split up and tragically collide. When police flood the streets looking for Samson, it's clear that somebody "Narced". Though Layne never suspects Matt, Matt's younger brother immediately fixates on his elder sibling's betrayal, and plots revenge. At first, Layne stashes Samson with Feck (Dennis Hopper), an elder pot-head who's on the run for murder, but Samson is too impulsive to stay in one place for very long. When Feck runs out of beer, the pair leave the safety of Feck's house for beer, bullets and a trip back to the river's edge. "River's Edge" is a stirring flick, but it's not quite the statement of society's collapse that it purports to be. (A nebbish, conservative student is put-down for just that sort of self-righteousness late in the story.) Just too much of the story doesn't add up. Matt's mom is simply weak - she's got a bossy live-in boyfriend, and looks to be have barely recovered from the sort of teenage existence now suffered by her kids. (instead of being emboldened, she's actually the weakest character in the flick - "I'm not your mother", she rants near the end "You're all mistakes!") Matt's brother plots revenge for Matt's treason - but he never connects with other characters in a way that suggests his loyalty. The other's are supposedly in sway to Layne, but Crispin Glover's mannerisms are less death-metal than post-modern mime (he simulcasts most of his lines with his hands) and he can barely hold himself together, let alone his peers. While separated from Layne, Matt uses his new-found inner strength to get closer to Clarissa (Ione Skye), but the story isn't sure which is really causing the other (maybe Clarissa is actually inspiring him to think past Layne). Especially weird is the way that while Layne searches for Samson, Matt runs into him at a liquor store after hours. There, using Feck's gun, and in front of Matt, Samson forces the storeowner to sell Matt beer. Matt never tells Layne of the meeting. The biggest hole is Feck. The flick tosses him and Samson together in a night that climaxes with something out of "Of Mice and Men" - but the script only partly succeeds in creating that intimacy between Feck and Samson. When Feck later says of Samson "he didn't love her", it's unclear whether he's referring to Samson's murdered girlfriend or to Elly, Feck's blow-up doll and captive passenger on that last night. That said, this is still an incredible flick. Crispin Glover is still unforgettable as Layne (after watching enough of "Edge" you may find it hard not to talk like him). The plot, for its holes, stays focused on that one last night. If the ending is way-too-pat, it's probably because the flick's ambition is more than it can achieve. In any case, I sat down for this click and couldn't pull myself away. Supposedly based on a true story, "River's Edge" should be appreciated on its own, without us having to wonder where the true story became a way-out cautionary tale of impulsive murder and misplaced loyalty.
|
DVD ~ Thomas Jane
DVD ~ Barbara Hershey
DVD ~ Pamela Gidley
DVD ~ Keanu Reeves
DVD ~ Fred Ward
