Review: River

By John Corrado

★★½ (out of 4)

A Canadian-funded escape thriller, River follows John Lake (Rossif Sutherland), a volunteer doctor in Laos who is dealing with patients of trauma and emergency surgeries, as evidenced in the almost relentlessly graphic opening scenes.

But when he intervenes in a violent rape after a night at the bar, accidentally killing the assailant in a moment of vigilante rage, John ends up on the run from police, as evidence piles up against him and he becomes falsely accused of the sexual assault.

Although River would have benefitted from a bit more character development, and the fairly straightforward plot can wear a little thin and almost repetitive, director Jamie M. Dagg still poses some interesting moral dilemmas in his treatment of the serious subject matter.

There are some tense moments here, heightened by the solid and absorbing camerawork, and Rossif Sutherland does a fine job of carrying the action, maintaining a certain level of suspense throughout.