It’s been the Year of Robert Redford here at the family film spot, and the calendar hasn’t turned yet – after we plumb the depths and breadth of the magnificent fishing-is-life film “A River Runs Through It,” we’ll still have time to squeeze in “An Unfinished Life” from Redford’s extensive portfolio.
We’ve already lauded Redford in 2007 for his intriguing work on such films as “Quiz Show” and “The Natural.” He lends at least two storied qualities to “A River Runs Through It”: his director’s sense of tone and the mellifluous voice perfectly suited to the luminous Western narrative of writer Norman Maclean.
“A River Runs Through It” was one of the most beautiful commercial films of the 1990s. In a poetry of diffused light, rippling water and insects slowly rising against the pine backdrop of Montana’s finest rivers, the film aptly translates Maclean’s vision of family and fish. Brothers Norman (Craig Sheffer, barely seen since) and Paul (Brad Pitt – I think you know him) love their life in rural Big Sky but struggle against the repressed emotions of their demanding father (Tom Skerritt, never better on the big screen).
The film is a romance, but not quite the obvious one. Yes, Norman courts gorgeous Jessie Burns (Emily Lloyd), but the movie’s primary romance is the idea of falling so hard in love with a place on the map that it shadows you wherever you go. “I am haunted by waters” is the famous line from Maclean’s story, captured so poignantly here in Redford’s narration that the final scene of the movie is physically painful.
Life is blessed, and short – concepts indelibly illustrated by Redford’s cameras focusing on an old man fishing in the fleeting rivers of his memories. If you think your teens will get too restless at these reflections, let them know there are plenty of adolescent antics by Norman and Paul to break up the heavy tone.
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com
