My Own Private Idaho (1991)'s comments

Do you want to let us know what you think? Just login, after which you will be redirected back here and you can leave your comments.

dombrewer

Strange film, but very watchable. The Shakespeare link seems to have been tagged in later, perhaps when Van Sant realised there wasn't enough going on in the story with River passing out every two seconds. Keanu's very good, surprisingly, and any film with Phoenix is fascinating now, sadly.

13 years 2 months ago

krisflushednemo

This movie breaks my heart.

14 years 4 months ago

Siskoid

I've read that Gus Van Sant combined three unfinished scripts to create My Own Private Idaho, and it shows. There's the story of male prostitutes (River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves) on the road. There's the modern adaptation of Henry IV with only slightly modified Shakespearean verse focusing on the Hal/Falstaff relationship on the streets of Portland. And there's the trip to Italy. This creates some important tonal shifts, with real male prostitutes telling horror stories for the camera, mixed in with Elizabethan delivery, beautifully real emotions, love scenes shot as erotic paintings, a musical number, and flights of surreal fancy. What brings it all together is Phoenix's character. A narcoleptic poet, he dreams of a mother figure and of a farm house in Idaho. This longing for a place to belong (ideally, someone's arms) is what drives the picture, and he keeps waking up in strange situations, having slept his life away. Because he sees the world in poetic terms, it justifies even the Shakespeare stuff. I don't think we're meant to see those scenes as fact, so much as his interpretation of them. It's a world view, filled with contradictions, stories told but not always believed, and moments preserved or lost in memory.

4 years 8 months ago

Shazaaaam

Dombrewer, I agree that the Shakespearean link felt a bit forced. (The logic of the Henry IV/Keanu character didn't make much sense here compared to play either--the businesspeople and voters of Boise will admire him all the more for having risen above a past as a gay street hustler??) Lots of lovely scenes, though, and great performances from the leads.

12 years ago