White Mile

The streaming service Max recently came to Australia after 512 years of waiting, and I was looking through what it had. I mean, it's great if you want to watch most HBO shows, but definitely not all HBO shows (most stuff pre-Sopranos, including Oz and The Larry Sanders Show? Fuggedaboutit). If you want to watch older movies, it's pretty bad. All the ones they have are the sorts most avid film watchers will have already seen, or even own copies of.

But they had White Mile, which I'd never heard of. It turns out it's obscure because it's a TV movie, and a very average one, but the idea of a white-water rafting trip going wrong sounded intriguing, and I like Alan Alda, so I thought, what the heck.

My life has not been made any better or worse by having sat through White Mile. It is a TV movie. It's about workplace imbalances, then it's about the trip going wrong, and then it's a courtroom drama. It doesn't so anything of these things terribly, and it doesn't do any of these things particularly well. White Mile is a TV movie.

Alan Alda is quite effective as a callous, driven head of an advertising agency who in a quest to strengthen the bond between his employees and their clients goes overboard (sic!) with a team-building rafting trip to Chilko River in British Columbia, Canada. Despite typical 1990s TV movie production values, the film offers some intense and complex psychological drama, especially in the final third. And the strong cast give performances that become increasingly effective as the film progresses. Both Alan Alda and the film itself were nominated for Golden Globe awards in the "Made for Television" sub-category.

Look, this is a silly made for TV movie. It's mildly distracting and week bring a light smile at the B-grade script and plot.

1994 gave us two white water rafting movie experiences: The River Wild and White Mile. Which one is better? They're both great in their own way. The River Wild is an action/thriller while White Mile is more of a drama/thriller. White Mile is a sadder, heavier story. It feels very realistic, almost like watching an actual real life disaster unfolding. I found this specific getaway gone wrong scenario, and the toxic workplace environment element relatable in some hard ways. Going down river rapids outside of a raft is terrifying. To a degree, I knew personally this fear portrayed by these characters. The latter third of this movie is an interesting and emotional court room drama. The characters go back and forth about what is morally right in the aftermath of the tragedy. Alan Alda and Peter Gallagher lead a strong cast of quality actors. They bring the drama and their characters teach us some important lessons. Alda especially nails his role as a conceited, bully of a boss. There is depth here and a heaviness which is successfully conveyed to the viewers.

"White Mile" tells the true story of a driven, success-at-all-cost ad agency executive who puts together a fishing and white water rafting trip for a group of agency and client people so they can bond and make a tenuous business relationship more secure. The trip goes bad when a raft overturns resulting in death and a difficult search through gray areas for a black and white sense of culpability. The film is a solid product given its docudramatic limitations and refuses to be dumbed down and cheapened up for the sake of entertainment. A smart flick with some good messages about the absolute nature of truth, matters of conscience, and just saying "no". (B)