A Nebraskan family reunion couldn't seem more backwards to a gay
Californian teenager.
If Ryder had his way, he'd choose a moment just
like this to come out, the bigger the scene the better.
For his mother's
sake however, Ryder agrees to keep quiet, save parading around the
picnic in his most audacious pair of short-shorts.
Ryder's antics raise
dubious eyebrows from his hardened cowboy relatives, but 9-year-old
Molly can't get enough.
She follows her cool California cousin
everywhere. After lunch, they walk to the barn to look for a bird's nest
in the rafters.
Their strange encounter, and whatever happened while
the two escaped their family's watchful eyes, makes Ryder the sudden
target of suspicion, and places him at the center of a long buried
family secret.
Anchored by a breakthrough performance by Logan Miller as
Ryder and rich, dramatic turns by Robin Weigert and Josh Hamilton, TAKE
ME TO THE RIVER constantly forces one to question any given character's
culpability until the film's finale. The film, woven together by an
omnipresent sense of dread, is the masterful debut from writer/director
Matt Sobel.
