Those marketing this film have tried their hardest to make it seem as if it is comparable to Se7en. It isn’t. It contains murders and people mention sinning occasionally. Apart from that, it is light-years away from that film in terms of plotting and quality.
Ray Liotta and Christian Slater are decent actors in their own right, but it’s remarkable how bad good actors can sometimes be. Maybe while filming they decided the best way to deal with the shocking lack of talent everywhere else on the project was to lower themselves to the same depressing level.
This is a cop thriller, where the lead detective (Liotta) is trying to navigate a very personal case. All the women he has had sex with are being murdered, one by one. Thankfully, the killer doesn’t get through them all, as the guy has apparently had over one hundred sexual partners. I don’t think I’ll be the only one to find this hard to believe of a character played by Ray Liotta.
It all gets rather horrid, and there is a distasteful aftertaste of misogyny to the film, but the most offensive thing about it is the appalling acting and writing. I’ve seen better in moneysupermarket.com commercials.
The River Murders (2011), directed by Rich Cowan, is released on DVD in the UK by Sony Pictures, Certificate 18.
