White Mile

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.

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.

The intensity of "White Mile" is somewhat surprising. Oh, I don't mean intensity in the way the DVD case will have you believe - all action and peril in the vein of "The Edge". In fact, the white water rafting is ultimately a very brief portion of the story. The stars of the film (Alan Alda and Peter Gallagher) offer up both very solid and very conflicted characters. At first, the depth is a unexpected thing. We aren't given basic sketches created simply to graft onto a script. Michael Butler has written this film as, essentially, a moral dilemma. In the end, it is so much devoted to this approach that we never quite get going in a fully emotional sense.

"White Mile" made me think. That's a good thing. It didn't particularly make me feel, but I'm okay with that. The acting was good, the direction adequate, and for something I went into without expectation, I can't say I'm disappointed. Good film.

"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)

Combining the best elements of adventure, suspense, character study AND courtroom drama, "White Mile" is a smart and engrossing film, made all the more fascinating due to the fact that it's (at least partially) based on true events. Alan Alda gives an astonishing performance as Dan Cutler, a hard-assed, unsympathetic ad executive who, convinced that his underlings have lost their competitive edge in the business, bullies them (along with a couple of their clients) into going on a whitewater rafting trip. Tragedy strikes the group on their outing, and when the details of the accident look like they may be swept under the rug and dismissed, one of the men who survived (Peter Gallagher, also very fine)decides to come forth and tell the truth when Cutler and the company are sued by the wife of one of the deceased.

If you only know Alda from his days as the nice-guy Hawkeye on "M*A*S*H," he's sure to surprise you here with his intense, tightly-wound portrayal. Expertly filmed by veteran director Robert Butler, "White Mile" is riveting all the way. Excellent, atmospheric score by Pray For Rain. Not to be missed! ****stars