Although I had never heard of 2004’s The River King, the DVD case piqued my interest when I saw it in the under-$5 bin at Walmart one day. I purchased the movie, but it sat on my shelf for a couple of years before I picked it up again when looking for something to watch. The case has piqued my interest once again. The movie hooked me within its first five minutes. While this was not a great movie, it was worth watching. The opening scene’s setting—a dead body discovered buried underneath a transparent sheet of ice in a narrow, winding river in the midst of a desolate forest in the depths of winter—was perfectly captured by director Nick Willing.

Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen, Confidence) stars as police detective Abel Grey. He and his partner, Joey Tosh (played by John Kapelos, noted for numerous television shows), are first on the scene. They pull the corpse of a young man from the river. We soon learn that the boy’s identity is that of August Pierce, a local, exclusive, extremely private college student. Fearing that a scandal might ensue, the school is quick to say that the death was a suicide.

The local police department, which has made it clear that it tries to distance itself from the school as much as possible, appears to be eager to close the investigation as soon as possible, apparently willing to do whatever the school requests. Even Joey wants the case shut despite increasing amounts of evidence that suggest the death was more than just a suicide. When Joey hands Abel a box of cash after meeting with a powerful official at the school, Abel learns that the school has a reputation for donating large sums of money to the police department’s “benevolent fund.” In other words, the college pays the police department off to stay out of the school’s affairs.

Abel knows that if he wants to find any real answers to the death, he will need to conduct his investigation all on his own. Abel is especially interested in learning the truth because his older brother committed suicide at about the same age that August was when he died. Abel discovers from the boy’s girlfriend, Carlin (Rachelle Lefevre – The Twilight Saga), that the fraternity severely bullied him (though they never use the word “fraternity”) while he was pledging.

For his initiation, August had to kill a rabbit. When he refuses to do this, the fraternity leader says he can only gain entry to their exclusive club if he turns a white rose red. Rather than believing the death a suicide, Abel secretly suspects that it is a schoolboy’s imitation gone wrong. With Carlin’s help and that of photography professor Betsy Chase (Jennifer Ehle – Possession, The King’s Speech), Abel discovers what happened on that fatal night. Through his discoveries, he can reconcile with his father the suicide of his older brother some 25 years earlier.

This movie is flawed, and the acting could be better outside of Burns. And while this movie could easily have been a two-part episode of a show like CSI or Law and Order, Abel’s backstory makes the story unique. The River King was also filmed almost entirely outside. The snow, the ice, and the forest are integral parts of the storytelling. The college nearly seemed to be its own city within the city of Hadin, separate from the police department, governing itself with its own laws and belief system.

Edward Burns broke onto the scene with the highly acclaimed The Brothers McMullen in 1995. Not only was it his first starring role, but he also wrote and directed the movie. At just 27 years of age, he had already been dubbed Hollywood’s next big star. However, he could never recapture what he had attained with The Brothers McMullen. He has since penned a few movies, directed a few more, and starred in more than a dozen since, but he seemed to have reached his peak with his debut movie. However, he remains a fine actor and will likely continue to appear on the silver screen for some time.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 6/10
Character Chemistry 6.5/10
Acting 6/10
Screenplay 6.5/10
Directing 5/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 7.5/10 (subtle incorporation of light instrumental music)
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
71.5%

C-

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