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My Own Private Idaho

EMAIL PRINTFine Line Features

8.1 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 9 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Gus Van Sant
William Shakespeare (play Henry IV)

Directed by: Gus Van Sant

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 18, 1991
DVD: March 1, 2005

Running Time: 102 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R

Starring River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William Richert, Rodney Harvey, Chiara Caselli, Michael Parker, and Jessie Thomas

In this loose reworking of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Reeves stars as the prodigal son who slums in the Pacific Northwest's junkie lowlife milieu with Phoenix, who plays a narcaleptic hustler.

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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The New York Times Vincent Canby

The film itself is invigorating - written, directed, and acted with enormous insight and comic elan. [27 Sept 1991]

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It gets you below the emotional belt in a searing, delicate way. No movie this year approaches such magnificent imagery, such delectable poetry.

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100

Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr

Beautifully wrought, darkly funny and finally devastating, My Own Private Idaho almost single-handedly revives the notion of personal filmmaking in the United States. [18 Oct 1991]

Washington Post Hal Hinson

Van Sant's sensibility is wholly original, wholly fresh. "My Own Private Idaho" adds a new ingredient: a kind of boho sweetness. I loved it.

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Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The style is so eclectic that it may take some getting used to, but Van Sant, working from his own story for the first time, brings such lyrical focus to his characters and his poetry that almost everything works.

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Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Before this trippy, mesmerizing movie swerves out of control, it delivers an exhilarating and challenging ride.

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The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

My Own Private Idaho achieves more than most movies dream of attempting. The Shakespearian allusions aside, Van Sant has essentially remade "Of Mice and Men" for the nineties, with Mike as the "mouse," Scott as the "man." It is the mouse who roars.

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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is no mechanical plot that has to grind to a Hollywood conclusion, and no contrived test for the heroes to pass; this is a movie about two particular young men, and how they pass their lives.

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TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Van Sant casts a gently hypnotic spell that is not easily forgotten.

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Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

It's a daredevil's ride that keeps you glued with fascination.

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Entertainment Weekly Lawrence O'Toole

But Van Sant, whose vision is otherwise sharp, pushes the connection to Shakespeare's Henry IV too far, having Reeves at one point declaim in rhyming couplets, which severely tests even the most forgiving viewer.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

No matter what you've been used to, Idaho is something completely different, a film that manages to confound all expectations, even the ones it sets up itself. [18 Oct 1991]

USA Today Mike Clark

Truth is, Idaho is nothing but set pieces; tossed into a mix whose meaning is almost certainly private. [27 Sept 1991]

Empire Philip Thomas

With a more accomplished script and an actor of rather more technical prowess than Reeves (nabbing the Prince Hal role), this may just have worked. Here, it is just squirmingly embarrassing stuff.

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The New Yorker Terrence Rafferty

It's a beautiful disaster, like a bomb test out in the middle of nowhere. [7 Oct 1991, p.100]

Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon

This is all very strange and a little tedious. Yet there is something arresting and oddly poignant in Mr. Van Sant's playful vision of the road to nowhere. [3 Oct 1991, p.A14(E)]

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

The Shakespearean side of the story falls short due to Reeves' very narrow range as an actor.

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Time Richard Schickel

What plot it has is borrowed, improbably, from Henry IV, and whenever anyone manages to speak an entire paragraph, it is usually a Shakespearean paraphrase. But this is a desperate imposition on an essentially inert film. [28 Oct 1991]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Eldon gave it a9:
This movie is intense and bizarre at times, I love it. And this new DVD release gives the movie new life and packaging worthy of it's art. A unique cinematic journey that deserves revisitation.

Pat C. gave it an 8:
It's an accurate visit to the hellhole some of us fell into in our adolescence. There's a lonely nostalgia about a place & time that would be a mistake on every imaginable level to return to. It is really a shame that a movie this good is about stuff that simply is not enjoyable to deal with, ever.