River Phoenix makes a young man's need for affection feel painfully exposed. We value the embarrassment he lets us see in My Own Private Idaho, where his vulnerable performance holds an uneven film together.
Fi1m perspective
In My Own Private Idaho (1991), River Phoenix makes Mike Waters look embarrassed by his own need to be loved. Opposite Keanu Reeves as his friend and fellow hustler Scott Favor, he seems to have much more at stake in their exchanges. Reeves suggests someone who could walk away; Phoenix makes the prospect of being left feel difficult to bear. We were moved by the effort Mike puts into admitting what he wants, because Phoenix lets us see how exposed the admission makes him.
His breakthrough was Chris Chambers in Stand by Me (1986), a coming-of-age role that established him as a leading young actor. As Danny Pope in Running on Empty (1988), he showed the quiet maturity that made these young characters worth taking seriously. He also played young Indy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Nancy Savoca's Dogfight (1991) continued the coming-of-age work, while My Own Private Idaho took him towards more adult, independent roles.
Van Sant's patience helps explain why that move works. The road film allows Mike and Scott to pass time together without requiring each stop to teach us something, so Phoenix need not keep announcing what is troubling Mike. There is room for humour, too, which matters in a performance so open to hurt. We can enjoy Mike's company without being invited to laugh at his loneliness. Phoenix gives us reason to stay interested when the storytelling wanders.
There are limits to what he can hold together. The Shakespearean passages in My Own Private Idaho strain, and the mixture of road film, dreams and fragments of home films can be awkward. Phoenix keeps Mike's wish for affection clear through this, though some of Van Sant's detours are not ones we would rush to repeat. Start there for Phoenix, with some patience for the film around him.
Biography
River Phoenix was an American actor. Born River Jude Bottom on 23 August 1970 in Madras, Oregon, he began his career in television commercials and made his feature debut in Explorers (1985). He gained early recognition for Stand by Me (1986) and The Mosquito Coast (1986), and appeared as a young Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
Phoenix received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Running on Empty (1988). He played Mike Waters, a narcoleptic hustler, in Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991), for which 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 credits include Sneakers (1992) and The Thing Called Love (1993). He died on 31 October 1993 in Los Angeles, aged 23.
