Movie Review: The River Why Blu-ray

Fly fishing creates the backdrop and main emphasis behind The River Why as a young man discovers his own way in the world after breaking off his home ties.

Film making 22/25

Video 24/25

Audio 20/25

Bonus Features 8/25

Total 74/100

Gus, or Augustine as his parents named him, played by Zach Gilford, finally leaves home when he is fed up with the constant bickering of his parents about fishing. Zach's father is a literary giant in the world of fly fishing with both a huge tale of the fishing moment of his life and several bestselling books about fly fishing.

His mother is a stoic and steadfast common fisherman, fisherperson?, who uses the casting equipment and worms to catch her fish and this is how they met. Gus is tired of hearing about their exploits and the constant fighting the two very different fishing types bring to his life.

He packs up his belongings and leaves home, rents a small cabin next to a trout stream and he teaches others all he has learned from his parents. The film follows his exploits first at teaching his trade of fishing to neighbors then to tourists and even selling flies and rods to local fishing shops.

Along the way he meets Eddy, Amber Heard, and her unique fishing style that adds to his intrigue about her, she catches fish using a simple stick and hook. Gus sees her first at a fishing hole, she catches a trout by hooking it then tossing the pole into the pond and diving in after it.

Gus has a simple life without the cares of society but he also has a knack for fishing and for the equipment which is written about in a local paper by a fishing writer. Gus helps the writer to catch fish and the writer starts to write in the paper which increases Gus's popularity and reputation.

When Gus starts to earn a reputation for fishing his exploits come to the attention of his parents who soon find him to make amends, he also comes to to understand their passions and feelings toward each other. The River Why is much like a love story but without all the mushy romantic parts of so called chick flicks, simple and plain with gorgeous views of mountain fishing country.

The River Why is a nice film with a good message of coming to terms with life and growing up as well as the natural world and keeping the environment clean. Eddy is an environmentalist at heart working toward making sure rivers are kept free of dams so trout can freely migrate for spawning.

Video and audio are good to fantastic for The River Why on Blu-ray with a great transfer to high definition but audio lacks volume. The video looks fantastic as you would expect for a film about nature along with man in it with fantastic color and clear video.

Audio however suffers from a lowered volume, increasing volume during the film is the only solution I found but everything other than this is fine with audio. The DTS-HD Master track is just fine but even the environmental ambiance is low key and limited but you can catch the babbling brooks and other ambient sounds clearly.

Bonus content on the Blu-ray edition includes a 40 minute interview piece and the trailer, the interview is pretty good with just about every person involved in the film. The interviews are worth watching but it gets a bit annoying with everyone continually commenting about coming of age.

The River Why is a pretty good film, one of those quiet Sunday evening movies to watch cuddled up with your significant other. I highly recommend The River Why even if there's not much extra content for a good film to return to again and again if for nothing else but the beautiful views.