User reviews

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 don't know why it is called "The River King", but it is a compelling movie. It has a good story line. There are some great possible endings and at least one of the best was selected. Any weak moments are covered over pretty well by the fine, believable acting of Edward Burns. Jennifer Ehle is worth watching anytime. Rachelle LeFevre should do well in the acting business. I'd recommend the movie to anyone who is interested in entertainment without unrealistic computer graphics. It was most entertaining. While it may well perpetuate the "myth" that all elite schools have bad boys leading other bad boys in deadly hazing rituals, it does not portray them in a good light.

"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.

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As a thriller, The River King is as fast paced as thawing ice. Its intensity is in the isolation and disillusionment of a man who is determined to uncover the truth, though nothing is what it seems.

The body of a teenage boy is discovered in an ice-clogged river and two local cops from the bumbling school of "what do we do now?" investigate his death. An accident, suicide or homicide? Seems straightforward, except that one of the cops is seeing things that aren't there and a photography teacher is developing some eerie pictures. A conspiracy, misperception, or paranormal haunting? This intriguing film that uses sleight of hand to make you think it is about one thing, when it is actually about another.

No extras on the DVD.

(*) Review title inspired by lyrics of "Riverside" by Agnes Obel Slow (occasionally too slow) but ultimately rewarding, nonetheless. That is probably the best and most honest way to describe "The River King". It's an old-fashioned murder mystery, although with supernatural touches and intense psychological overtones. The plot isn't nowhere near original, but it's absorbing from start to finish and there's a lovely end-twist, and - moreover - the filming locations and soundtrack are staggering, and the performances are more than good.

In a quiet and remote snowy town in Nova Scotia (what a beautiful region), the body of a student at an elite private boarding school is found in the river. The school's board, as well as the local Chief of Police, quickly wrap up the incident as a tragic suicide to avoid a massive scandal. Honest officer Abel Grey, however, strongly suspects it was a murder, and maybe even with some elite citizen and questionable hazing rituals involved. Abel's curiosity is not appreciated, and he is soon blamed for still having a hard time with his own brother's suicide. Still, Abel finds some evidence to keep the investigation open, and he also gets help from a lovely teacher at the school.

Edward Burns and Jennifer Ehle (who looks an astounding lot like a young Meryl Streep) are excellent, and what I really appreciate the most was how director Nick Milling subtly touches upon philosophical themes.

When I went out together with a friend to the movie store, it seemed to us like a movie that could be worth watching. Nice cover, nice story. The employee said it was a good movie, so he was told.

Well, the guy from the store should really watch the movies people recommend. Thus he can verify customers feedback because this was the most terrible movie I have ever seen. As for the cover: Looks can be deceiving.

It started up nice. Police officers dragging a corpse out of a frozen river. The veins of the body colored red when they took him out. Hmm, nice. There are some hints of supernatural or bizarre things going on here. Well I was wrong interpreting. In the end it was the only thing that kept me watching. I wanted to know what caused his arteries to color.

My friend fell asleep after 30 minutes. So he went to bed. His girlfriend followed after 10 minutes. So I was the only witness to this horror. I wondered why I didn't die while the movie was playing. Throughout the entire movie nothing happens. It really was nagging me and I wanted to thrash the DVD and the TV. If it weren't the stuff of them....

The acting wasn't bad, the script wasn't that bad either, but the product itself suck bigtime. Something during production went wrong. One thing: It is sloooooow. Moreover, halfway the movie I was wondering whether the story was about the murdered student, or about the investigating protagonist which deals with his childhood events. A parallel storyline beside the headstory is okey, for example to illuminate what one thrives. They might as well have given Bambi the role of the officer. That also wouldn't make sense.

As for the title, I don't know what caused the makers to give it this title. Yes, there is a kid in the river, but to give such a title for a film... Exaggerated and inexplicable.

As fast paced as a river full of peanut butter. If you want to bore yourself, go watch this film. Moreover I recommend watching a demented turtle go for a snack in another country. At least that would be fun...

I like Burns, he does all he can with this part. But, I detest movies with no conclusion, and this one is one of those. You could leave at any time, and know as much as those of us dumb enough to stick it out to the end.

Great visuals, good music. Beautiful winter scenes. A couple of nasty guys who you'd like to see put in their place. A nice Streep-clone girlie figure. She's engaged to one of they nasty guys. But, why is she in the story at all? Even a ghost is thrown into the cast.

Odd love scenes .... he and she are just talking, then suddenly sucking face like they were magnetized. When they pull apart, you almost miss the "plop" sound from cartoons. They swear off each other, agree to call it quits, and then get right back to swapping spit.

I can see why this went straight to DVD .... somebody had the brains to save the distribution and promO costs, and cut their losses.

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.

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 corpse of a private school student (played by Thomas Gibson in flashbacks) is found in a frozen river near a small town. The local authorities would prefer to dismiss the case as a simple suicide or an accident, but an honest cop named Abel Grey (Edward Burns) cannot ignore the clues pointing to a more complex truth. Perhaps a female student Carlin (Rachelle Lefevre) knows more about the case? A kind and beautiful female teacher Betsy (Jennifer Ehle) might also be able to help.

The film is clearly work of professionals: the direction, photography and music give no reason to complain, but the movie is not without its problems. My main criticism is the lead character Abel who is left a somewhat blank and uninteresting vanilla hero in the end. Some brief scenes casting light on his childhood traumas aren't enough to make him appear as a real, living person, and the handsome but uncharismatic Edward Burns cannot bring him to life either. The other main character, the young man that is found in the river at the beginning, is a much more riveting character and left me wishing I had learned more about his inner life. The redheaded Carlin character would also have deserved more attention at the expense of Abel.

Ultimately The River King is a watchable if somewhat forgettable mystery tale. There are occasional highlights, the haunting ending being an obvious example, but overall the film doesn't grab the attention of the audience very tightly and just slips by for the most part. It's not really a bad film though, so watch it if the premise sounds interesting to you.

"The River King" was not much of a king at the box office probably because there was no box office. It was because it went straight to DVD. Unfortunately, its play at some of the Canada film festivals was not enough for distributors to deep into their pockets to circulate "The River King" to theatrical releases. I could see why! The film is like your basic ABC Sunday Night Movie of the Week (they still have that?). Ed Burns stars as Abel Grey, a northern small-town detective who gets unraveled in a death of a young college boy. The young lad's death was called a suicide even though Grey sees it in more "Shades of Grey" and thinks it more as a homicide. Abel also has issues with his brother Cain! Wait! This is not a religious epic! What I meant to say that Grey is also dramatized by the childhood experience of witnessing his older brother commit suicide. Could the two be connected? Director Nick Willing did a formidable job in depicting the northern small town experience. However, Willing was not willing to push the envelope and provide us a more thought-provoking narrative. I am an avid fan of Burns , but I do not think that the Northern cop thing suits Eddie. It was a cold decision for him to take this role. You will love the northern exposure of "The River King" but the murder mystery aspects will drown you with boredom. *** Average

I expected a lot more from the outset as it started good and then descended into TV movie territory. The ending was painfully poor. I'll never get the time back.

**SPOILERS** Finding the body of a young man frozen in the icy Haddan River Officers Abel Gray & Joey Tose, Edward Burns & John Kapelos,at first feel that the man fell into the river and drowned. Idenified as August, or Gus, Pierce, Thomas Gibson, of the exclusive Haddan School and a member of it's super secretive "Chlak House" it becomes very evident to Officer Gray that the young man's death was anything but accidental. Members of the "Chlak House" are known to be involved in very brutal hazing rituals and Gus may very well have been a victim of one of them that went terribly wrong.

The film "The River King" has a double story running through it with Able Gray trying to make up for something that he kept secret for years deep in his subconscious mind about what happened to his older bother Frank, Joseph Wynne, years ago when he was a little boy. Very slowly paced film that has Able almost fanatically determined to find the cause for young Gus's death as if he were a member of his own family not a name on a police blotter. Able finds out from Gus' girlfriend and fellow student at Haddan Carlin Lander, Rachelle Lefever, that Gus was very despondent earlier in the night before he ended up dead under the Haddan rivers ice.

Running up against a stone wall with Able's boss Richard Fitzpatrick, the chief of the Haddan PD, and Joey telling him to drop the case and report Gus's death as being an accident, not a murder as Able suspects. Able decides to go on his own to uncover the real reason for Gus' death regardless of the pressure put on him not to.

Unearthing a number of clues including this strange photo of Gus' dorm room that seems to have Gus' ghostly image on it, this taken after he died, drives Able to go so far as to quit his job as a policeman to get to the truth about what really happened to Gus.

It later turns out that Gus was having his difficulties with the members of the "Chalk House" who's grand master or leader Harry McKenna, Jamie King, had it in for him because of his girlfriend Carlin leaving him for Gus. In one of the "Chalk House" weird rituals Harry tried to have Gus do a trick, turning a white rose red, with him being drummed out of "Chalk House" and out of Carlin's life forever if he failed. Gus tricked Harry and somehow preformed the trick he asked of him but it was that very act on Gus's part that lead to his death.

Able get's the truth out of Harry, by almost drowning him, about Gus' death but it doesn't jive with what he thought it was leaving him guilt-ridden over what he did not only to Harry but to his friend Joey as well as throwing his job, on the Haddan PD, away. Driving to Gus's father Walter Pierce, Karl Pruner, house Able finally gets the missing piece of he puzzle in Gus's death that confirms and resurfaces his worst fears. Not about Gus but his late brother Frank and what he had to do with it and even more heart-wrenching how he tried to hold his father Ernest Gray, Sean McCann, responsible for it.

There's now nothing left for Able to do but to make amends with his Dad, for what he put him through all these years. Able still has one more painful task left for him to do and that's to show Carlin the real reason for Gus's demise. This time, unlike with his father, Able did the right thing by having the truth about Gus' death die and be buried along with him.

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.

The River King is a refreshing movie. It has none of the usual clichés. The plot is not predictable. The movie presents the viewer with little hooks and clues that leave one wondering about how they all come together. At times, I was left wondering what type of movie is this? Is it a horror movie? Is it sci-fi? Is it a ghost story? The actors performed their roles convincingly. The character Abel Grey leads the viewer to believe in what he suspects is happening, that he is right. Carlin's character has the right balance, not too dumb, not too incredibly (ie unrealistically) smart, just like a regular person. No super heroes in this movie.

The cinematography and background music is so seductive and blends very well with the subject of the film. The time just fly by as the main characters arrive at a very plausible ending.

If you're tired of comic book hero movies, or TV-like stories, or violence, or CSI-like sleuthing then check out 'The River King'. I'm really happy that I did.

The River King is based off the novel of Alice Hoffman. The movie is about a detective Abel Grey who is played by Edward Burns. He is sent to investigate the death of a student. The police department believes that the death of the student is a suicide. But he believes that students death is not. The movie starts off slow but starts to pick up some speed towards the middle. I thought that Edward Burns did a good job in the movie but even he can't save the movie. I thought the was good until I got to the end of the movie. The movie is not going to be for everyone and because of the way the movie ends I can't recommend the movie to anyone.