River Phoenix made a need for affection painfully clear without asking us to pity the person who felt it. His work in My Own Private Idaho is reason enough to forgive that film’s more laboured stretches.
Fi1m perspective
In My Own Private Idaho (1991), River Phoenix makes Mike Waters’s longing for affection difficult to watch. He does not plead with us to like Mike or make his loneliness the whole of the person. The lighter scenes give him something to do besides suffer, without pretending that humour will put everything right. We felt protective of Mike because Phoenix lets that need remain so exposed even when there is something to laugh at.
His breakthrough as Chris Chambers in Stand by Me (1986) established a gift for playing troubled adolescents without making their feelings look rehearsed. Danny Pope in Running on Empty (1988) brought that sensitivity into a family drama, while Young Indy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) offered a different sort of supporting role. These are different jobs, though sensitive young men are the clearest line through the work. In Mike, that vulnerability carries into an unconventional adult role.
Gus Van Sant is a particularly sympathetic director for him, allowing desire and human comedy to coexist with loneliness. The trouble comes when My Own Private Idaho turns towards Shakespearean dialogue and surreal imagery: we sometimes wish Van Sant would stay with the people. Phoenix makes Mike’s need for affection too specific for the character to become a lesson about hardship. That performance makes the film worth recommending despite some laboured stretches.
Bill Stafford’s gentle music lets the tenderness register without insisting on sorrow, which suits an actor who needs little help holding our attention. Curtiss Clayton’s editing has to fit documentary inserts alongside dreamier passages, and the conspicuous joins sometimes interrupt our interest in Mike. These shifts are frustrating because Phoenix has already made us want to stay with the people on screen. Start with My Own Private Idaho, and do not expect the film to be as restrained as Phoenix.
Biography
River Phoenix was an American actor. He began his career in television commercials and made his feature debut in Explorers (1985). He received acclaim for his performances in Stand by Me (1986) and Running on Empty (1988), the latter earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Phoenix played Mike Waters in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991). For the role he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor. His other notable films include The Mosquito Coast (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Sneakers (1992). He died on 31 October 1993, aged 23.
