Turn the River [2007]

EMM# : 31351
Added: 2016-03-17

Turn the River (2007)
Sometimes Your Last Shot is Your First Break

Rating: 6.1

Movie Details:

Genre: Drama ()

Length: 1 h 32 min - 92 min

Video: 1920x1072 (23.976 Fps - 2 050 Kbps)

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In New York City, Gulley, who's in middle school, lives with his father and step-mother; his paternal grandmother dominates the family's life. In secret, he's recently been in touch with his mother, Kailey, a pool hustler, who wants to win big and take Gulley to Canada. With the help of Teddy Quinette, who runs Quinn's Pool Hall, Kailey may get her shot at big money. Can she win the match, keep her son's confidence, and, using fake documents she gets from Markus, a friend of hers, make it to Canada to start a new life? Written by

Plot Synopsis:
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In the thriller TURN THE RIVER, Famke Janssen (Best Actress- Hamptons Film Festival) stars as Kailey a small town pool hustler in upstate New York. She ekes out a living playing poker, periodically driving into Manhattan to check up on her mentor, Quinn (Rip Torn), who runs Quinn's a hardcore pool hall. Kailey (Janssen) is determined to raise $50,000 to wrest her son Gulley (Jaymie Dornan), who she was forced to give up at birth, from the toxic clutches of her alcoholic ex-husband David (Matt Ross) and his domineering mother (Lois Smith) and move to Canada for a better life. In order to win the money, Kailey must score a match with the best player at Quinns, Duncan (John Juback). With this as her only hope for a future with her son, Kailey starts to play and the stakes have never been higher.

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intelearts from the big screen
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Nice character study of a female pool player whose life is going in smaller and smaller circles and simply wants out, but knows no way to get out.

Excellent performances from Famke Janssen who brings a real underplayed performance, and particularly Rip Torn, who I normally tolerate - as it always seems to be a variation of the MIB character - here he plays the pool hall owner and gives a very good performance indeed - nicely underplayed.

The plot of pool player trying to find meaning in her life with her estranged son is good - but the film is at its best when it's playing pool - just wish there had been more and more of that - very nice. The hustling is never glamorized and feels authentic and kind of grubby.

All in all a nice small indie movie that delivers a satisfying character study of the type normally given to guys - and for that alone it is notable.

For first time director Chris Eigeman whose previous acting credits are more in the romantic comedy line or TV shows - this ain't bad at all...

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Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left
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Shrewd and scrappy pool hustler Kailey Sullivan (a splendid and mesmerizing performance by Famke Janssen) wants to rescue her loving son Gulley (winningly played by Jaymie Dornan) from her strict, demanding, and abusive ex-husband David (a fine portrayal by Matt Ross) and start a new life for the both of them in Canada. However, Kailey needs $50,000 bucks in order to accomplish this particular goal. Writer/director Chris Eigeman's debut feature scores strongly with its beautifully well-sustained brooding and melancholy tone and a flavorsome and fascinating evocation of a fiercely competitive underground sports culture. Better still, Eigeman admirably eschews sappy sentiment and lurid melodrama in his hard-boiled approach to Jailey's dire predicament. That said, the scenes between Jailey and Gulley are nonetheless still quite touching. Janssen positively shines in a juicy lead role; she brings a truly riveting and nuanced blend of toughness and vulnerability to the compellingly rough-hewn character of Jailey. Janssen receives bang-up support from the always wonderful Rip Torn as Jailey's wise and supportive mentor Teddy Quinette, Lois Smith as Gulley's snippy and meddlesome grandmother Abby, Marin Hinkle as David's sweet new wife Ellen, Terry Kinney as the antsy Markus, John Juback as formidable professional pool player Duncan, and Tony Robles as polished young upstart Ralph. Herman Micheal Otano's slick and prowling cinematography brims with style and energy. The moody'n'melodic score by Cloggs likewise hits the harmonic spot. This picture earns bonus points for not punking out with some phony happy ending that wraps things up all nice and neat in a bow; instead the conclusion is absolutely devastating in its startling bleakness. Highly recommended.

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Tss5078 from United States
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Turn The River is a stupid story, that is poorly directed, and just plain boring. Kailey is a professional gambler who not only lost custody of her son when she got divorced, but also lost the right to even see him. She is convinced that he ex-husband is abusing her twelve year old son, the way he abused her, and she's determined to do the only thing she can about. Kailey goes on a quest to win as much money as she can, so she can get her son and take him away to a better place. First of all, we have no idea why Kailey can't see her son and we so no evidence of abuse by her ex-husband. Gambling, also infers random games of chance, but not with Kailey, honestly it's just ridiculous. The film stars X-men beauty Famke Janssen, who is quite good looking, but unfortunately very dry as an actress. Her son, Law & Orders Jamyie Dornan, is a bit more entertaining, but the role is so badly written, that no one could have made it work. A lot of things are alleged and assumed in this movie, but we aren't shown any of it. It's impossible to separate fact from bull doody, in this incredibly slow dud of a movie. The script is terrible, the acting is bland, and the direction is sloppy. If you suffer from chronic insomnia, try watching this!

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MBunge from Waterloo, Iowa
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This movie sets up an explosive and compelling situation. It then completely wimps out by refusing to take a stand on any of the moral and ethical questions it raises and then stumbles into an ending that makes you wonder if writer/director Chris Eigeman ever knew what he was doing.

Kailey (Famke Janssen) is a haggard, working class pool hustler who's always looking for a game. The only thing that matters to her as much as pool is her son, Gully (Jaymie Dornan). He lives in New York City with his dad David (Matt Ross) and his stepmom. Most of Gully's contact with Kayley is the letters they exchange through a pool hall owner named Quinette (Rip Torn), but now she's back in town with a half-formed plan. She wants to take Gully and run to Canada, making a new life for them both. To do it, Kailey needs to get $60,000 dollars for phony passports. That's hard to do hustling pool for a $100 dollars a rack. Quinette comes up with a plan that might get Kailey the money, but it's not at all clear that Gully will really be better off with his mom, even though there's something not right at home with his dad.

Turn the River could have been a very powerful story. A woman separated from his only child. A father insecure and resentful of his own son. A man and a woman whose lives are defined by terrible mistakes they made years ago. Kailey, who lives moment to moment by the skin of her teeth, fantasizing that she can take care of a young boy. David, seething under the disapproving glare of his own mother. What it's like to be a woman in the world of pool hustlers. There's a lot here to work with. This film falters, though, because it refuses to make up its mind on the most basic elements of its story.

Is Kailey acting selfishly or does she truly have Gully's best interests at heart? The movie never says, and I don't mean it's ambiguous on the matter. I mean sometimes it clearly portrays Kylie as being motivated by what she wants, while other times she's clearly set up a noble mother trying to protect her son and there's never any effort to reconcile those differing aspects. The film very deliberately sets up David as the bad guy, then it throws in a scene where he's suddenly a good guy who cares about Gully. David's mom is on one hand put forth as the source of all of David and Kayley's troubles, yet she's also the only one of the three who seems to have her head screwed on straight. The movie never commits to saying this character is good and that one is bad, this person is right and that one's wrong. But instead of creating shades of gray, the story flounders around in mush.

Turn the River is a good example that sometimes an actress can be too beautiful for her own good. Famke Janssen plays a character who's ratty and grimy and worn down. The film does just about everything it can to make her look grubby and plain. The problem is…you could peel off most of Famke Janssen's skin and she'd still be pretty sexy. Kailey is supposed to be a woman who's lived her life on the wrong side of the tracks, but she looks like a model who got hit on the head, developed amnesia and started hanging around in pool halls.

And then there's the ending, where I don't have the faintest idea what writer/director Eigeman is trying to do. Now, I'm not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, so it's possible I'm just not getting it. But the conclusion to Kailey and Gully's run for the border doesn't appear to have anything to do with anything that came before it. It's as though when Eigeman got to the end of his screenplay, he just flipped a coin on whether it would have a happy or sad ending. Then the coin came up heads when it should have been tails.

Janssen and the rest of the cast do fine work and the movie looks okay, but the story is never strong or certain enough for you to notice or care.

Turn the River is a film about pool that gets its title from the world of poker. That kind of encapsulates the mixed up nature of this movie.

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Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States
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Hardscrabble single moms appear to be all the rage in indie dramas these days. That may account for why, after "Frozen River," "Sleepwalking" and the like, "Turn the River" doesn't feel quite as original and fresh as it otherwise might.

Kailey Sullivan is a down-on-her-luck pool hustler who doesn't even have visitation rights with her 11-year-old son who lives with his abusive dad and stepmother. Kailey's plan is to make just enough money at the tables to enable her to grab the kid and head north of the border.

Written and directed by Chris Eigeman, "Turn the River" has a nice feel for the rhythms and tones of everyday life, with the drama as understated as the performances. The scenes between mother and son are particularly well conceived and executed. There is sensitive, thoughtful, subtle work by Famke Janssen as Kailey; Jaymie Dornana as her son, Gulley; Matt Ross as Gulley's dad; Lois Smith as the boy's paternal grandmother; and Rip Torn as the pool hall owner who sets up matches for the cash-strapped Kailey and serves as go-between for her and her son.

Even the melodrama at the end is nicely underplayed, so much so that we can forgive the air of déjà vu that hangs over much of the work.

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jackasstrange from United States
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Turn the River can be described as a revenge drama. However, the theme of the film itself is not that interesting, certainly because it's a big cliché. However, this is the first film that i ever saw which take very seriously snook. I really don't give a dawn about that game, but anyways...it's a relatively 'original' idea. But apart from that, there is really nothing interesting about that film. The story concept, as i already mentioned is a cliché. And i really do not like low budget films which don't have nothing interesting to add. So maybe this is why i didn't like that much the B films. Rarely a Reservoir Dogs kind of B films appears. Back to the film, which explanations about the reasons of the revenge aren't really clever. It's a crucial element in any revenge film. All we'd know is that she wants to retrieve her son and escape with him. Not convincing. So. Yeah. That's not a worthy film, unless if you'd like snook, i suppose. 4.5/10

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TxMike from Houston, Tx, USA, Earth
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In this movie Famke Janssen as Kailey Sullivan is far from her Jean Grey role in "X-Men." Here she is a rough-looking woman who is good at card and great at billiards, better known in the city as "pool." When we first see her in the city, meeting her 10-year-old son on a park bench as he walked to private school, we wonder what might have happened that she has to be sneaky that way.

When we get to know Jaymie Dornan as her son Gulley, and see how his own dynamics at home work, we get a glimpse that there is something very wrong in his relationship with his dad who it turns out is a seminary drop out and still seemingly under the control of his religious mother.

The other interesting character is Temple, Texas native Rip Torn as Teddy Quinette. He owns a pool hall in the city and we learn early that he is the "go-between" that allows Gulley and Kailey to communicate. She mails letters to her son and he drops by the pool hall to pick them up. But mom orders, read them and destroy them, don't keep any around.

As the complete back story unfolds Kailey and Gulley's dad messed around and she got pregnant, but also got into some trouble and the grandma arranged that she would not have a record if she would give up the baby, divorce the dad, and agree to never have any contact with her son.

If you are looking for a story with an ending where everyone comes out happy, this one will not do it for you. But if you want to see a gritty movie about the difficulty of split up families, this is a good one.

SPOILERS: Kailey figures out that not only is Gully generally unhappy with his dad and step-mom, he is also being mistreated at times. So she resolves to kidnap her son and bring him to a place where they can start a new life. She chooses Canada. But she needs quite a large sum of money to get fake passports made, and she gets that through hustling at the pool hall. In an unfortunate turn of circumstances for Kailey she and Gulley are intercepted by authorities as they await a bus to Canada and, when a fake gun falls out of her dropped purse, and she goes to retrieve it, an agent shoots her. They never get to Canada, as she dies at the wheel of the truck she was trying to drive off in.

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M MALIK from Pakistan
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we all know what a great actress Famke Janssen is i became a fan when i saw her in Goldeneye 1995 & later in X-Men she did a lot of films before this and after this that are very good to watch but this project is straight dull.

this film is not about a swimming pool its about pool the famous game but more then that pool plays a small part this more about character study then story itself for those expecting some Jason Statham type action stuff will be disappointed as it is very slow & mainly dialog oriented.

the plot:Kailey is a pool player who makes a plan to participates in pool tournaments just to make more money & use fake documents to travel to Canada with her son who lives his father but will this plan work.

this is something is something i should also mention why Kailey is trying to kidnap her own son well its simple the father Kailey's ex husband is aggressive towards the son,she lover her son like all mothers but she also makes a mistake and gave up her own son when he was born and now when he is grown up a bit she wants him back but why would she do that now this is something i will not spoil its a hidden secret.

the cast:all actors are passable except Famke Janssen her performance is amazing as always her timing is awesome she understands the character too deep i did expect her to beat some bad guys up here but none of those scenes come.

this was an uninteresting,slow paced & to be honest a kind of boring film and not for everyone so overall if you are a fan of Famke Janssen watch Turn The River 2007 my rating is 4/10.

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hikergirl_tx from United States
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Enjoyed the performances of Jannsen, Torn and Dornan. Pool scenes were believable and worth the watch, but about halfway through the movie I really started having a hard time believing in Famke's character, she didn't have a job or a home - just somehow managed to live from poker game to pool game. All the character's in her life seemed a bit over the top, why did all her friends seem to be of a criminal element? How did they arrange to meet in the park? How did he know to go to the pool hall to pick up the letters? Then I realized this was the kid's fantasy Mom that was coming to save him. They don't make it to Canada at the end perhaps because he realizes that he can't really leave - but then he takes another go at it.

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Michael O'Keefe from Muskogee OK
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Not exactly THE COLOR OF MONEY, or even a better than mediocre movie. The story line suffers from melancholia and lack of star power. Kailey Sullivan(Famke Janssen)is a desperate small town pool hustler. She barely gets by with poker earnings and what she can earn by picking up a pool match or two. Her mentor Teddy Quinette(Rip Torn)runs a pool hall in Manhattan called Quinns. He knows that Kailey needs money to get her son Gulley(Jaymie Dorman)away from her ex-husband(Matt Ross). "Quinn" sets up a high stakes match so Kailey can hustle enough money to sweep her son off to Canada and a brighter future. The finale is not as predictable as the rest of the movie. The title TURN THE RIVER makes little sense to me; maybe I just wasn't in the right mood to watch this. Others in the cast: Marin Hinkle, John Juback, Lois Smith and Terry Kinney. I really do like Janssen, but she was just not enough to carry this flick.

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Certifications:
Australia:M / Singapore:NC-16 (cut) / UK:15 / USA:R