"Turn the River" DVD Review -- Written by Anthony Thurber

Turn the River
Year: 2008
Directors: Chris Eigeman
Stars: Famke Janssen, Rip Torn, Jaymie Dornan
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Screen Media Films
Running Time: 92 Mins
Review Rating: 5 Stars
Official Website: http://www.turntheriver.com/


Turn the River is one of those dark dramas that should be seen. The film is about a female pool shark (Famke Janssen) who’s barely able to pay her rent by playing poker and hustling players at the local pool hall. She is desperate to find a way to take her son, who she was forced to give up at birth, away from her ex-husband and his wife. She plans to raise 50,000 dollars, so she can take her son away from New York and move to Canada, where they can’t be found. In order to escape the life that she is living now, she must play, as every game is important to her and her son’s future with each other.

It’s films like this and One Night (you can read my review for that film by clicking here) is the reasons why I enjoy watching and reviewing low budget independent films. These films that explores issues that have a realistic tone to them and are performance driven.

Turn the River is one of the most powerful films I’ve seen this year. First-time writer and director, Chris Eigeman, directs the film. His direction of the film was very good. The film was dark and had a very realistic tone to it. But the way he directs those scenes in the film, it helps move the pace of the film along, as it didn’t feel like one of those boring dramas, when you like your sitting there watching a long movie when in fact it one of those ninety minute films. He gets your attention by his direction of the actors. I thought the performances were very good. Famke Janssen gives a very compelling performance here. She does that by making her character realistic, as she shows off her dramatic range by selling the fact that this character is going through the fact that her character has a gambling problem. The performance also made me interested in her character and the relationship between her and the character’s kid. The film also has some very good supporting performances from Jaymie Dornan and Rip Torn, as it help made the story very entertaining.

Eigeman’s screenplay was also very good. He does a great job making this film a character study while keep the tone of the film, dark and realistic. The screenplay does a good job in going into the main character’s addiction to gambling and the struggles that she is going through in her personal life. It helped with the film’s realistic tone, as it doesn’t give you that the sense of anything was fake. Also, the subplots with main character’s relationship to her son and the son’s relationship to his father works very well. I liked those plot lines because they were dramatic and looked into both the main character and the boy in the film. He also does a good job exploring her reckless lifestyle, which also sell the main character’s problems.

Turn the River is a film that I urgently want you to check out, as it hits DVD selves today. It’s a very powerful and realistic film that should be seen.

DVD Extras:

Audio commentary with director Chris Eigeman
"Final Shot" Featurette