The River Wild

Gail Hartman grew up around white-water rivers, and she returns to that terrain with her husband Tom and their young son Roarke, hoping a rafting trip through the Montana wilderness will repair a marriage that has come apart. Tom is uneasy on the water and out of his element; Gail is confident, and the outing is meant to mark Roarke's tenth birthday. Along the way the family falls in with two men whose own trip has gone wrong, and who talk their way into joining the group. Their story does not hold up. Rather than depend on one another as planned, Gail and Tom find themselves dealing with strangers whose motives turn dangerous, and the trip becomes a struggle to survive the river and the people on it.

Curtis Hanson directed the film, the sixth of the thirteen features he made, arriving between The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and L.A. Confidential. Denis O'Neill wrote the screenplay, and David Foster and Lawrence Turman produced. Meryl Streep plays Gail, David Strathairn plays Tom, and Kevin Bacon plays Wade, with John C. Reilly as Terry, Joseph Mazzello as Roarke and Benjamin Bratt as Ranger Johnny. Made for about 45 million dollars, it took in roughly 94 million worldwide, a solid return that reflected Streep's draw in an action-oriented role.

Audience response has been moderate: 6.5 out of 10 on IMDb from around 54,000 votes and the same score on TMDB from a much smaller sample, while critics rated it 6 out of 10 across 39 reviews. The three broadly align, suggesting a competent, straightforward thriller rather than a standout.