Take Me to the River

An initially promising but often unbelievable drama, writer-director Matt Sobel's Take Me to the River is a semi-effective tale about family secrets that is more about suggestion than actual details. Teenager Ryder (Logan Miller) reluctantly travels cross-country with his parents, Don (Richard Schiff) and Cindy (Robin Weigert), heading for the latter's family farm back in Nebraska. The object of the trip is a big family reunion, an event that Ryder thinks would be a good opportunity to come out as gay in front of a big pool of relatives. Cindy and Don dissuade him of this, but Ryder chooses a more indirect route, wearing red short-shorts and a feminine, low-cut shirt. His cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandmother all notice, but there is no overt problem until Ryder goes off to a barn with 9-year-old Molly (Ursula Parker), who comes running back to her parents screaming with blood on her clothes. No one knows what happened, but Ryder is suddenly a pariah at the party. What follows is often implausible and ultimately opaque, as Don and Cindy allow Ryder to enter into potentially dangerous situations alone (especially going to dinner at the home of Molly's hair-trigger father, played by Josh Hamilton). All of this leads to a big revelation that may be painful but is more about atmosphere than answers. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Matt Sobel and costars Logan Miller and Robin Weigert, interviews with Miller and Weigert (9 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a disappointing film.] (T. Keogh)