The River King

The movie had everything set up to be a great feature, but instead turned out to be a dud. Very disappointing.

It starts out with a body found in the river. Two cops find it (one being Ed Burns). They flip flop from being completely inept to actually caring. While they're not sure what to do with the body, they notice a strange feature on the corpse's chest. Ed Burns takes this case seriously as everyone else wants to dismiss it so quickly as a suicide or accident. This is the great plot build up. The rest is downhill.

Movie is still nice to watch if you like Ed Burns but a drag on entertainment.

"The River King" is a well-acted mystery. Edward Burns plays detective Abel Grey. He finds a body in the river and it's one of the students of the Hadden School, an exclusive college. Everybody Abel talks to, says it's suicide, but Abel has his suspicions. He also has to fight his personal demons that are intruding on the investigation.

Edward Burns puts in a really good performance. You care about his character. You definitely want to find out how the mystery ends. It looks great and the music is different too. The only thing I didn't get was the character of Betsy Chase. (Jennifer Ehle) She was not necessary to the movie.

It is odd that a film of this high quality went straight to video. Don't be fooled by that though. It's a film that's worth watching.

For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

It was a very good movie, with a wonderful mood and fairly strong story, although it wasn't telling the story you thought it was. The characters were very strongly drawn, I thought, and the pacing was terrific.

Nothing blew up, no CGi effects, and it's not based on a comic book, but I liked it anyway. And the two women leads were well worth watching, and Edward Burns is worth watching anytime. The musical score was well chosen to pace the movie.

I recommend it for a contemplative mood, when you're in the mood to "curl up with a good movie."

THE RIVER KING is a high profile film that went directly to DVD without the benefit of a theater run. It is anyone's guess why a film of this quality should not make it commercially while there are so many less well-made movies that linger on the screens for weeks or months. The film is well acted, well directed, beautifully photographed and well scored.

The possible reason for its lack of attention may have been due to some test screenings where the audience was asked to evaluate. Despite all of the fine points of the film the problem lies in the screen adaptation by David Kane of the haunting novel by Alice Hoffman. Too many loose ends do not a story make and in the final analysis it is difficult to converse with someone who has not seen the film just what it is about.

Ostensibly, THE RIVER KING is about a private prep school out in the snowy fields of somewhere, a place where secret societies still haze, faculty are still under the control of the school's funders, and appearances are far more important than truths. Abel (Edward Burns) is called in to investigate the found drowned body of a student, and with his partner (John Kapelos) the two detectives suspect foul play - suicide, murder, hazing. Their investigation includes questioning the victim's only friend Carlin (Rachelle Lefevre) and one photography and English Lit teacher Betsy (Jennifer Ehle). But as the investigation proceeds, Abel has flashbacks to his childhood memories of his own older brother's suicide, dark secrets that have haunted him, and it is this psychic matrix which serves as the canvas for him to resolve the case as well as to relate to the various characters within the confines of the prep school.

Many of the questions raised by the narrative remain unanswered by this frustrating script, but the actors bring as much involvement and credibility as they are able to create a film of mystery and self-realization in the snow and ice of the fields around the school. For those who wish more, reading Hoffman's novel will be more satisfying. Grady Harp

I like to like movies that qualify as small gems. TRK had all the potential for such and, for the first forty minutes or so, looked to qualify. The acting wasn't bad (Ed Burns is just a bit too low key) the script is crisp and the pacing, shoot and story suspenseful. Indeed there were a dozen different prospects for; e.g., who the bad guy was going to be. I can't agree with some of the other comments herein that there was enough mood, fine acting, dialog, etc., to distinguish TRK as excellent cinema. But again, after more than a half hour I'm totally absorbed by the plot potential.

It is almost as if TRK sets up the viewer for a thousand possibilities only to intentionally fulfill absolutely none of them. A move "fizzles" when it paints itself into a corner then escapes in a clumsy manner. TRK paints itself into a corner and then climbs out a window. Again, there are not enough fine points about this movie to make it enjoyable on another level. Virtually every aspect of the build-up centers on facts, twists, questions, etc., that go unanswered. It is truly difficult to imagine what the makers of TRK wanted the viewer to enjoy about this movie.