Saturday, December 13, 2014

Movie review - "Stand by Me" (1986) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

A movie much beloved by people. I was never that into it myself - please don't throw rocks at me, I recognise it's quality, it just never had quite the resonance. Beautifully made with love and affection, and wonderfully acted: Wil Wheaton, River Pheonix and Corey Feldman are all excellent, though so too is Jerry O'Connell (whose performance is often overlooked because he's fat comic relief and not given a tormented backstory - but he's perfect as a very familiar type, and also given more screen time than I remembered, they are always cutting away to him).

It's steeped in darkness and death - the passing of Wheaton's brother, the corruption of the teacher who caused River to be falsely accused, the PTSD of Feldman's father, the injury to Feldman which will ultimately mean he can't live out his dream and go into the army, the disdain Wheaton's father has for his son, the vileness of Kiefer Sutherland who looks completely prepared to kill River, River grows up to be a success and then is stabbed in the throat. But there's also warmth and camaraderie as well as pitch perfect evocation of the sort of friendships and conversations you have when you're 12.

Several things struck me re watching it after years - Richard Dreyfuss seems to be a very successful author (his house is huge), I feel they should have addressed Ace's revenge (detailed in the book), the "friend structure" of the group reminded me of Entourage (fat comic friend, wild arse, smart bookish guy who is besties with the charismatic leader).

No comments: