46
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelThe River is nothing more than a conventional, albeit pretty, melodrama. [11 Jan 1985, p.4N]
- 60TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA good film for the viewer who isn't interested in being entertained but is willing to be thrown into the muck of the problems facing hard-working American farmers.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertYou know a movie's got problems when you find yourself wishing the heroes would agree with the villain.
- 50The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyThe River has a meticulously detailed physical production and, from time to time, is acted with passion by its cast. Yet its ideas are so profoundly muddled that the film must run mainly on sentimentality.
- 50Time OutTime OutThe message of continuous hardship is somewhat at odds with the same impulse towards idyllic lyricism that Rydell brought to On Golden Pond. Vilmos Zsigmond contributes his usual handsome photography, but this is one river that seems unlikely to run.
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThe River doesn't live up to its ambitions. [03 Jan 1985, p.27]
- 40NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenRydell and his writers compose a kind of Farmers' Book of Job as they pile one misery after another on the Garveys. But all this suffering does not turn them into real people. They're those old Hollywood standbys, Mr. and Mrs. Indomitable Human Spirit. [31 Dec 1984, p.65]
- 40Washington PostPaul AttanasioWashington PostPaul AttanasioRydell shoots the movie as if it had been commissioned by the Department of Agriculture. His scenes have such brute intentionality, they never come to life -- they're instant, airless cliche's. And who can believe that Mel Gibson is a down-and-out farmer? [11 Jan 1985, p.B1]
- 40Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyGibson, the thinking man's Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Spacek, a rawboned Raggedy Ann, are nearly silent partners in this largely visual parable. Despite their good looks and best efforts, the film falters. [11 Jan 1985, p.19]