So Cold the River

I read the book when it first came out and really enjoyed it. As writer myself From the same neck of the woods as Koryta I'm a big fan of his atmospheric storytelling. I remember enjoying the book, great characters and engaging plot, not Koryta's best work but still enjoyable. About a year ago I was on a long road trip and decided to listen to the audio book on Audible. Much to my surprise I found myself hearing the story in a much different way than when I read it and actually enjoyed it even more.

Now the movie. I was really looking forward to the film version. I knew from the trailer that the main character Eric was changed to Erica and fellow historical investigator Kellen Cage turned into a female intern. Josiah Bradford's character was also drastically different than in the book and I'm not sure I liked the change to be honest. The movie certainly had some elements of the book, the hotel was a nice setting and the cinematography wasn't bad, the acting felt a bit phoned in. The major element missing from the movie was the sense of place the book had, the feeling of traveling back in time in Eric's (Erica's) and Josiah's mind just didn't translate well to the big screen. Unfortunately some books just don't translate well from written word to screen and unfortunately this may be one of them. It's possible if the movie was longer and more was included it could have come across better, unfortunately I think an hour and a half is just not long enough to tell a story with the amount of depth the book has.

Well, the river might have been cold, but it was hardly enough to keep me awake.

When I sat down to watch this 2022 drama thriller titled "So Cold the River" from writer and director Paul Shoulberg, then I hadn't even heard about the movie. I liked the movie's cover, and with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch it.

But writer and director Paul Shoulberg just didn't really deliver a movie that fell into my liking. The narrative of the movie is slow, so insanely and very, very slow paced. And since nothing worthwhile or interesting really happens as the movie progress at snail pace, it was just more and more difficult to keep faking an interest in the storyline. And little did it help that the character gallery had all the appeal of watching wet paint drying.

Now, I wasn't familiar with the cast in the movie, and I will say that they had a good choice of leading actress with Bethany Joy Lenz, just a shame that she and the other actors and actresses had nearly nothing to work with in terms of script, storyline, characters and dialogue.

What does work for "So Cold the River" was the production value. But production value is worth nothing if the movie is lacking a properly interesting and entertaining story to tell. So it made for a dull and prolonged experience to suffer through the ordeal that is "So Cold the River".

My rating of "So Cold the River" lands on a three out of ten stars.

So Cold the River perhaps is Michael Koryta's version of The Shining. While the rich and layered story of the book got some tweaks and alterations for its film adaptation, the simplified iteration sadly can't give the book real justice. It's a slow burn and talkie film that mostly resembles an episode of a mediocre late-night TV mystery show.

A little disappointed I'm afraid... "After watching "So Cold the river"...maybe I'm one of the few people who read the book before seeing the movie.. Acting ,filming and direction was superb but the book was barely touched upon and changed far too much.... I can see why people who didnt read the novel were confused!!!.

Loved the setting (of course because I work there and am TRULY impressed every time I see it) and it was beatifully filmed but this story should have been much more!!

Yes.. I will probably still buy it but sad it wasn't Michael Koryta's original book!!

As I have seen only one genuine review here (those giving it 10/10 must belong to some lobbyists that have certain personal interests in promoting it), giving it a 1, since there is no meaning, no explanation and no logic to the whole script, I felt like some enlightenement and honnesty were needed here. If you can spend an hour and a half simply looking at some nice imaging and actors that try hard enough to make it worthwhile, go for it!

If you expect to understand anything or simply have something that stays with you after this watch, just pass it, since the script is awful and it makes no sense whatsoever.