I Think I'll Disappear Now...my thoughts on RIVER'S EDGE (1986)

I saw the first 17 minutes or so.

It was touted as a highly disturbing film.  It wasn't.  The premise was bone chilling and full of promise.  As it turned out, the setting was drab, the cinematography was equally so, the script was equal parts slow and plodding and rushed.  I saw slow and plodding because it isn't concise in its presentation.  The parts of the screenplay that were key to the story only lasted like 2 seconds apiece.  Aside from the possibility of telling the story in a way that would look and feel compelling on a screen, there's the issue of character development; granted, this is a movie and if the characters and their relationship to each other were well established, as well as their mentality, I'd still find this film to be better suited for the page than wasting thousands upon thousands of dollars and man hours trying to film it for illiterates.

  Keanu Reeves appears to have a conscience early on in the film, but you don't see why he hangs out with the creeps he hangs out with.  You don't see why he's friends with the guy who killed his girlfriend for no good reason.  Perhaps the stone cold killer was more sane early on in his life?  You don't see or hear any of that.  Crispen Glover is also shown to be a little off his rocker, talking about how "exciting" it'll be to have to keep his knowledge of the dead girl's murderer's identity a secret and how loyalty is the reason it will remain secret.  It appears that Keanu Reeves and his cohorts are only connected by their love of illegal drugs.  Maybe I'm just too picky in my choice of relationships to have any sympathy for a guy who picks such screwed up friends.  But then again, maybe the murderer and his loyal friend weren't Keanu Reeve's character's friends?  Maybe the fact that Keanu Reeves was into the druggie lifestyle forced them to cross paths and he, like me, was too easy to get along with and therefore Crispen Glover and the murderer just thought they were friends with him b/c "well, we're not enemies..." 

  I probably could have watched the entire film.  But gosh, I was expecting something so much more than this swamp fest.