Pool Cue News and Review

Turn the River officially opens today in NYC and the reviews are starting to roll in.  The New York Times overall gave the flick a pretty good review, although they didn’t seem to care much for the third act.  Stephen Holden had the following to say about it: “Until it transforms into an improbable thriller, “Turn the River” is a finely observed portrait of a desperate working-class woman who refuses to play by ordinary rules. It programmatically plays down the suspense during the ultimate contest, which pits Kailey against Duncan (John Juback), a canny, seasoned pool hustler adept at mind games.”

Over in the world of Rotten Tomatoes, the flick is currently sitting at an 89% overall rating with 8 positive reviews and 1 negative.  The good reviews are from some pretty heavy hitters as well (Variety, Newsday, Village Voice, New Yorker).  Because its a limited release indie, it probably won’t be in a theater near you anytime soon, but word has it that the DVD will be out in July.

A couple of additional quotes and review links:

Chris Eigeman makes an impressive debut as writer/director of Turn the River, ably abetted by an intense, edgy star turn from Famke Janssen as a pool hustler who wants to grab her abused son away from his weak, alcoholic father and get the hell out of town fast.
-FilmCritic.com (4/5 stars)

Writer-director by Chris Eigeman, one of America’s finest comic actors (best showcased in Whit Stillman’s films), seems aware of the risk that his film runs of drifting into the untenable, and so he painstakingly anchors it with double knots of character development, weaving in a network of supporting parts and a real sense of how people support or subvert one another in their screwed-up relationships.
-Village Voice

…What is impressive about these early scenes is the faith and courtesy that they extend to the audience. They don’t present the information in slabs but release it drop by drop, and expect us to work out the truth for ourselves. In short, “Turn the River” plays it cool—not bad, when you realize that Chris Eigeman, normally an actor, is making his début here as a writer and director, and when you weigh the mass of sadness that sits upon his film.
-The New Yorker