User Reviews

The 'River Rat' was a surprisingly better film than I expected. If you have seen 'Square Dance' or 'Shy People,' you learn to be weary of Deep South small-town dramas, especially those about broken relationships between parents and their children, as they usually turn out to be quite depressing if nothing else. But not 'River Rat,' what starts out as a decent drama about the reunion of a young girl (Martha Plimpton) and her father (Tommy Lee Jones), who was recently released from jail, almost immediately turns into a Deep South caper when someone from the jail tracks down the father looking for some loot. And this is where the real fun begins.

The father was in jail for a crime he committed as a kid when he, another boy, and a young girl (who bears his child) decide to break into an old woman's house and steal a load of money that she was rumored to keep by her bedside. Only, things go wrong, and the other boy winds up killing the women while both boys take off, on the run from the cops. The father, as a boy, is eventually caught and incarcerated. To get his parole, he didn't have to show remorse, but he did have to tell all to the prison doctor (Brian Dennehy) who would give the recommendations (or not) to the parole board. Promised a cut of the money, the father agrees and is released. Only the doctor wants his money now, and is willing to kill the father and anyone else who stands in his way to get hold of that money. So, the father, the doctor, the daughter, and the daughter's young neighborhood friend, all hop aboard the 'River Rat,' and sail down to Memphis to retrieve the finds if all goes well.

It seems unbelievable at points in the film, especially throughout the climax, when the doctor doesn't seem entirely dangerous or much like any kind of adversary, since he goes about things (sometimes) rather more civilly than one expects. So, that kind of detracts from the mood, but otherwise, it is a pretty decent movie. If you're in the mood for a good mix of drama and adventure (they're almost like two distinct halves of the same movie with the drama part being resolved first), then this is probably good for you. Or, if you want to see the cast since it has both a young pre-Goonies Martha Plimpton and Tommy Lee Jones (who never really looks young).

The movie could have done without the search for money, and continued dealing with the development of the father and daughter, but even so, it is a good movie.

The father has been released from prison. He has never seen his daughter. She has been raised by her grandmother. He has to slowly get used to being out of prison, and being a father.

This is dating myself a bit, but Tommy Lee Jones' reaction to his daughter saying she isn't a "lezzie", and her talking about (not support) of incest, shows him to be a person ready to join the Moral Majority. On the other hand, when don't parents worry about the next generation, and what they're learning in school? And this was before we had the internet.

Sadly, the lovely world depicted in the movie has been given a setback by the recent hurricane. People will bounce back. It's nice others are helping them.