The River Wild (1994)

I've never had any interest in going whitewater rafting, but this movie certainly brings out the adventure, the joy, and the excitement of it, and the landscape shots of the forests, the hills, and of course the river itself are really lovely. When it kicks into high gear as a thriller about halfway through the movie, it does a good job keeping tension high, with the protagonists exhausting every idea they have for how to escape their captors, so we're never left wondering, "But why didn't they just...?" I've said before that I rarely like Streep when she's playing a normal every day human and find her best performances in more extreme characters, but she is good here, coming across as both human and flawed but also intelligent and competent. Had she wanted to, I bet she could have continued doing thrillers, because she's a great leading lady here. The side cast here is also great and their dynamics pretty well fleshed out, and overall it was a solid watch, if not spectacular.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The River Wild > The Cutting Edge

The River Wild < Jack Goes Boating

The River Wild < Being John Malkovich

The River Wild > Little Women (2019)

The River Wild > Rachel, Rachel

The River Wild > The Big Chill

The River Wild > The Hunt (2020)

The River Wild > The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The River Wild < Poltergeist

The River Wild > All About My Mother

The River Wild > Lifeforce

Final spot: #1311 out of 3476, or 62%.