Rider

"River" is a Laotian film about John Lake, an American doctor working in Laos, who intervenes in the sexual assault of a young woman by an Australian tourist. His efforts of intervening lead to him killing the Australian tourist, being mistakenly accused of sexually assaulting the woman, and having him being a wanted fugitive. The film is directed by first time Canadian director Jamie M. Dagg, who does one hell of a job with this film.

The film takes its time to develop the character of John and then throws him in this crazy situation that he mistakenly got himself into. I felt so empathetic towards John because he wanted to do the right thing, and by doing so he accidentally kills a guy and is falsely accused of assaulting a woman. The story is very simple and has been done in many other films before but what makes "River" standout is its realism and Rossif Sutherland's performance as John. Sutherland brings so much energy to this role and does an excellent job being a frantic, scared, and innocent person.

As the film continues and John is on the run you later find out who the Australian tourist is related to which adds a new level of extremity to the situation. There's not a lot to say about the film story wise, you have a man on the run and doing what he can to not get arrested for false causes. The performances are great, the direction is great, and the cinematography is overall very well.

A couple issues I had with the film is that during some scenes when John is being chased or running the camera is very shaky. And at the last ten or so minutes of the film something is revealed about the situation John's in which causes our character to make an action that didn't sit too well with me.

Overall "River" is a wonderful directorial debut for Jamie Dagg, which displays great performances from Rossif Sutherland, and all of the cast as well. I'm looking forward to what this talented young man will do next.

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.

American volunteer doctor John Lake (Rossif Sutherland) works with Dr. Stephanie Novella (Sara Botsford) in a rural Laos medical clinic. He's on a holiday in the south when he comes upon a Australian tourist assaulting an unconscious local woman. He's drunk and things spiral out of control.

This needs a bit more setup on why he would be so afraid of the local police. He's running right from the start and that needs some explaining. I'm willing to buy it to some extent but it would help to give him more reasons to run. He's overdoing the jitteriness. He's running without a plan. He's running without a reason sometimes. He's not running from the American government which was my greatest hope for an explanation. Even if he gets back to the US, he'll be extradited back to Laos or Australia under the political pressure. I don't think he's doing rational things unless the movie explains itself better. I do like the exotic locations and I also like the redemptive ending although it's a little too late.

I found this movie fairly enjoyable as I went into it with fairly low expectations from what I read on IMDb. The movie does a pretty good job of building suspense through a series of unfortunate events that seem plausible. I found the main actor to be pretty decent and likable, which is important because he's in 90% of the movie. The supporting characters aren't given much film time but that's OK given the nature of the film.

A big bonus of the film for me was getting to see the exotic locations of Laos. I like films that can take me to another part of the world and immerse me in the culture of that area. This movie did a great job of that as it really made me feel like a foreigner.

The ending is a bit anti-climatic but for the most part, the movie kept me interested up until the end.

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.