A River Runs Through It Reviews

When Tom Skerritt, Brad Pitt and Craig Sheffer go down to the water's edge and cast their lines, they are not fishing for fish: they are fishing for metaphors. This movie may not star Robert Redford (he merely directs and narrates) but it looks like him — golden highlights and faded denim costumes, not to mention that Pitt resembles the young Redford to a quite startling degree — and is full of his brand of outdoors mythology. The picture, based on Norman Maclean's bestselling 1976 novella, shows us how to fly-fish and live in a state of grace, harmoniously with the land and water. Set in Montana in the early part of the century, the story focuses on the relationships between stern Presbyterian clergyman Skerritt and his two sons, Sheffer and Pitt, who grow to have little in common aside from their love of fly-fishing. The problems of the minister's family, notably Pitt's angler without a cause, are slightly pumped up for box-office reasons, as is Sheffer's affair with Emily Lloyd. This was a risky project for Redford, taking a book without a core drama, and unlike that other metaphorical fishing epic, Jaws, it may lack sufficient bite for some. However, Philippe Rousselot's exquisite photography deservedly won an Oscar — Montana looks simply gorgeous.

"...A mesmerizing family memoir fueled by sense of place, force of memory and love of nature....[Pitt] makes himself so like the young Robert Redford that the effect is astonishing..."

Montana, 1910. Norman and his younger brother Paul grow up under the watchful eye of their father (the ever-wonderful... read more on Time Out

When Tom Skerritt, Brad Pitt and Craig Sheffer go down to the water's edge and cast their lines, they are not fishing for fish: they are fishing for metaphors. This movie may not star Robert Redford (he merely directs and narrates) but it looks like him — golden highlights and faded denim costumes, not to mention that Pitt resembles the young Redford to a quite startling degree — and is full of his brand of outdoors mythology. The picture, based on Norman Maclean's bestselling 1976 novella, shows us how to fly-fish and live in a state of grace, harmoniously with the land and water. Set in Montana in the early part of the century, the story focuses on the relationships between stern Presbyterian clergyman Skerritt and his two sons, Sheffer and Pitt, who grow to have little in common aside from their love of fly-fishing. The problems of the minister's family, notably Pitt's angler without a cause, are slightly pumped up for box-office reasons, as is Sheffer's affair with Emily Lloyd. This was a risky project for Redford, taking a book without a core drama, and unlike that other metaphorical fishing epic, Jaws, it may lack sufficient bite for some. However, Philippe Rousselot's exquisite photography deservedly won an Oscar — Montana looks simply gorgeous.

"...A mesmerizing family memoir fueled by sense of place, force of memory and love of nature....[Pitt] makes himself so like the young Robert Redford that the effect is astonishing..."

Montana, 1910. Norman and his younger brother Paul grow up under the watchful eye of their father (the ever-wonderful... read more on Time Out

"...It's the best movie ever whose raison d'etre is the spiritual glorification of fly-fishing..."

A soothingly nostalgic movie, often graceful but more often sluggish.