A River Runs Through It (1992)

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true, we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – we can love completely without complete understanding.” – Rev. Maclean

Number of Times Seen – Twice (3 Mar 2005 and 6 Apr 2019)

Brief Synopsis – Two brothers who grow up in the house of a minister in Montana come of age and learn about life and fly fishing along the way.

My Take on it – This is a film that I saw years ago and didn’t recall anything about it besides the fact that it was about fishing and that it was directed by Robert Redford.

Redford is a great director, but this film has issues with the story’s translation to the screen from the book it’s based on.

The book is quite descriptive in the way that it tells this story but the story itself isn’t engaging enough.

This film is beautiful to look at but tells a pretty boring story.

The cast is quite good with Tom Skerritt, Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt all giving solid performances but are limited due to the story.

The film is much too long and the shallow storyline feels too stretched out and doesn’t manage to stay interesting the entire time.

The best part of this film is the cinematography which is able to transport us to another time and place when life was seemingly simpler and much calmer even in the wilderness depicted here.

Bottom Line – Film that is beautifully shot yet is pretty boring in the way that the story is presented. Redford is a great director, but the problem here is that the source material is rich with descriptive passages but fails to tell a truly engaging story. The cast is great with Skerritt, Pitt and Sheffer giving solid performances. The runtime is a bit too long and the story which is a bit too shallow feels very drawn out and fails to remain interesting along the way. The cinematography is the best part of this film and they are able to make us believe that they are able to transport us back in time to a calmer more quiet wilderness.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Robert Redford courted author Norman Maclean for years to gain the rights to his autobiographical novella. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)