My Own Private Idaho (1991)
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My Own Private Idaho Movie Review
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 adventure drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. It’s such a weird flick that doesn’t really work.
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“I love you, and you don’t pay me“
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Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike’s estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs.
This is a famous cult movie that is especially popular among the LGBT audiences. It is one of Gus Van Sant’s more popular movies, but I myself wasn’t particularly enamored with it. This is one of those weird movies that are so strange that they do not appeal to me personally as a fan of more straightforward, more purposeful storytelling. I did not find any message or point to this movie. Only the kindness of strangers angle was solid, but otherwise the film is very slight.
The movie tries to be so many different things, but ultimately the director doesn’t do anything meaningful with any of these elements – narcolepsy, family past, homosexuality, hustlers etc. None of these got their proper development unfortunately and we end up with a movie that is more concerned with being strange and different than telling a good story. The Shakespearean elements, though fun at times, mostly came out of nowhere. They were poorly stitched together that they felt like an afterthought. The same goes for some of the Felliniesque imagery that, not being a fan of that director, never appealed to me at all.
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What I liked are the performances and the characters. Bob is way too ridiculous for him to work, but Scott and Mike are very memorable characters in looks, clothing and their relationship. I liked their friendship, but ultimately their bromance of sorts also did not go anywhere as they unfortunately decided not to portray any meaningful gay relationship here. Keanu Reeves is quite good, but River Phoenix is phenomenal, endearing and very easy to root for, and offering such a good central performance that’s the driving force of the movie that is ultimately too messy in editing, pacing, direction and weird tonal shifts that I am personally not a fan.
Though it features memorable turns from Keanu Reeves and especially River Phoenix, and it certainly has its endearing moments, My Own Private Idaho is more concerned with being strange and Felliniesque than offering a well-crafted, purposeful narrative. The Shakespearean elements are also too odd and out of place. The movie is tonally odd and indecisive in terms of approach, and thus we end up with a film that is a weak, pointless mish-mash of way too many different ideas, none of which explored properly.
