River

A North American doctor working in Laos accidentally kills an Australian man who has just raped a local woman. He then flees the authorities, while the situation is made worse for him by the revelation that the man he killed is a senator's son.

This independent Canadian/Laos co-production is a chase thriller that stars Donald Sutherland's son Rossif Sutherland. He is in every scene and is pretty good in it, conveying the worrying scenario his character finds himself in convincingly. The story itself is quite spare with no wastage whatsoever. It moves at a very good pace, which I suppose you would expect from a chase film and it does build up some decent suspense at times. What takes it up to another level though is the setting. Not too many films are set in Laos and the exotic locales make for a very pleasing backdrop to events. Aside from this there is perhaps nothing particularly out of the ordinary in this one but it still works very well and is overall a well-executed, lean thriller.

Despite a lot of shaky camera work, the moral of the story is: Miscarriage of justice, if you are 'well connected', the powers that be will always win! Give it a watch!

In response to correct other reviews, in the train station you are likely to see many Thai Buddhist monks as the train is an economical way to travel. They are not Tibetan Monks as one review stated and he spends most the movie trying to get away from the Laos police, not Thai.

I enjoyed this film, I think the panic and suspense was heightened throughout and I generally thought It was well acted out, I didn't know who the lead was until I looked him up after the film so my review has no bias, a good film. Not quite the fugative but elements are definitely inspired by it.

John Lake (Rossif Sutherland) is a doctor working for an NGO in Laos when he gets told to take some time off after a bit of 'stress' in the work place. So he heads to a peaceful part of the country for some 'r and r'. Then he sees a sexual assault taking place between a tourist and a local girl. He intervenes – and it does not take very long for things to go very bad, very quickly.

Now that is the synopsis and to say anymore would be a bit of a plot spoiler, however this is a thriller so you know that there is going to be a lot more to this than just the above. And it manages the thriller part really well; the acting is all very good too as is the direction.

This is one of those films that goes for down to earth realism rather than sensationalism and that helps it achieve the necessary level of authenticity that means that I, for one, was able to empathise with the characters and engage more deeply. This is one of those films that seem to have slipped by unnoticed, which is a pity as this is one that is very much worth checking out.