Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
After the success of his 1989 breakthrough film Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant was becoming one of most promising filmmakers in American Independent Cinema. The success of Drugstore Cowboy led to Van Sant to re-release his 1985 debut film Mala Noche as he was ready to work on his next project. With the emergence of New Queer Cinema that included such future indie film icons like Gregg Araki and Todd Haynes, Van Sant decided to put his hand into the scene with a story inspired by a song by the B-52s and some of the work of William Shakespeare's Henry IV for surreal, melancholic road film My Own Private Idaho.
Written and directed by Van Sant with some text inspired by Shakespeare's Henry IV, the film is about a rebellious heir who slums himself into the seedy gay hustling scene in Portland as he meets a moody, narcoleptic hustler who is trying to find love and the mother he hadn't seen for years. After hanging around with fellow hustlers and a homeless guru, the two young men wonder about their own homosexual feelings while going to Idaho and then to Italy to find one of the young men's mother only to find something else. Starring the late River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William Richert, Udo Kier, Rodney Harvey, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Grace Zabriskie, and Chiara Caselli, My Own Private Idaho is a brilliant, heartbreaking film of alienation and youth.
For the young narcoleptic hustler Mike Waters (River Phoenix), hustling for money as a male, homosexual hooker hasn’t been easy, especially with the stress of his life leads him to fall into deep sleeps. One day in Seattle, he is approached by a rich woman named Alena (Grace Zabriskie) to come to her house for sexual matters with two other hustlers including Gary (Rodney Harvey) and Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves). After falling a sleep on the job, Scott takes Mike outside of the house where he will be waited the next morning by their German friend Hans (Udo Kier). Mike knows Scott since Scott is the mayor's son who is about to collect a large inheritance at the age of 21. Scott chooses to rebel against his upper-class upbringing to find more meaning in the life of gay-hustling.
After catching up with Mike in Portland, Scott and Gary wait for their friend and spiritual leader Bob (William Richert) who is accompanied by his hysterical sidekick Budd (Flea). Bob is hoping for Scott to get his inheritance to help them out of their homeless, dreary lifestyle as a whole gang of hustlers live in an abandoned hotel. After a bust on some men that was later pulled as a joke by Mike and Scott, the two stolen a motorcycle where Mike talks about the mother he hadn't seen in years. After meeting his father (Tom Troupe) on the discussion of his inheritance, Scott decides to kill time to help Mike find his mother. They go to Idaho where they meet Mike's older brother Richard (James Russo) who not only reveals a dark family secret but also the strange whereabouts of their mother. During their trip to see Richard, Mike falls for Scott but Scott isn't sure if men are supposed to be in love with each other
Mike and Scott drive to a hotel where Mike's mother last worked where the hotel manager tells them that she left for Italy as they bump into Hans. After a night that involved one of Hans' old records and sex, Scott sells the motorcycle to Hans as they use the money to go to Rome to find Mike's mother. Arriving at Rome where they go to the Italian countryside, Scott meets and falls for a young Italian woman named Carmella (Chiara Caselli) who reveals that Mike's mother had already left some time ago back to America. Heartbroken with not finding his mother and Scott's newfound love for Carmella, Mike leaves to Rome while Scott returns to America. After Mike returns to Portland, he learns of Scott's true intentions of the inheritance and his own livelihood in his disintegrating state through drug addiction.
While My Own Private Idaho was intended to be a film about homosexuality and its alienation, Van Sant found something that a straight audience even the disaffected youth of the early 90s can relate to. Using Shakespeare's Henry IV as a reference, some of the film's dialogue is very Shakespearean in its tone, notably the character of Bob as he talks with Scott about the inheritance. The film also has elements of a road film and a buddy comedy while it sexuality isn't really about gays in particular but also the view point of how a straight man would feel about homosexuality and its desire for love. Van Sant's screenplay is very potent and filled with some heartbreaking moments, notably the third act where we see the emotional disintegration of Mike. The directing style that Van Sant puts out is very diverse and there's definitely an element of Fellini in some of the dream sequences that Mike has as he sees a house falling down or him staring at the road. The ideas that Van Sant puts out are very surreal yet very powerful images.
Many of the film's dreamy images are done by the work of cinematographers John J. Campbell and Eric Alan Edwards where both men give specific looks and images in many of the film's road scenes. The American sequences are spectacular in its dreamy scales while the sequences in Italy have a different tone and look where the movie is given a broad outlook. The production design of work of David Brisbin and Ken Hardy also shows contrast into Scott's social upbringing and the downtrodden look of Portland while having some weird colors and lighting in the hotel scene with Udo Kier along with the costumes of Beatrix Aruna Pasztor. The film is nicely-paced thanks Curtiss Clayton's editing that includes a few jump-cut sequences in some of the love scenes. The film's music includes a diverse style of cuts from pop songs like Madonna and Elton John to some Euro-pop cuts from Udo Kier, a track by the Pogues and River Phoenix's band Aleka's Attic, and some country stuff by Bruce K. Buskirk and "Cattle Call" by Eddy Arnold.
The film's wonderfully diverse cast is filled with some stand out performances like the late Rodney Harvey as one of Mike and Scott's hustling companions and Flea as Bob's hysterically funny sidekick. Grace Zabriskie also stands out in the film as the kinky, motherly client that pursues Mike while Udo Kier is the film's big standout with his European demeanor and performance art charm. Chiara Caselli is wonderful in the role of Scott's would-be lover Carmella with her underlying innocence and beauty. James Russo is excellent as Mike's older brother who tries to help Mike away from drugs and his own narcolepsy while William Richert brings a great supporting performance as the spiritual guru Bob with his Shakespearean dialogue and tone that gives the movie a sense of idiosyncrasy and originality.
While many have often criticized and made fun of Keanu Reeves as a wooden actor, Reeves actually gives his best performance as the role of Scott Favor. For those who remember Reeves in films like River's Edge and Permanent Record know that Reeves had the ability to be a wonderful dramatic actor and in My Own Private Idaho, he fulfills that easily. Reeves gives a sense of compassion and charm early in the film as he cares for River Phoenix in many scenes that are heartwarming with the two carrying on with great chemistry. Then as the film progresses and once we see his intentions, we see a restraint in him in the Shakespearean tone he talks in during his scenes with Richert which is why Kenneth Branagh wanted him for his 1993 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Though Reeves has become a very bland actor in recent years thanks to the widely overrated Matrix films, it's very easy to forget that he had the potential to be really good and My Own Private Idaho shows it.
The film's most soulful and probably now, the most saddest performance goes to River Phoenix as Mike Waters. Phoenix brings in a very complex and versatile performance that can almost be described as iconic yet very troubled. Phoenix delivers a vulnerability and compassion into a role that is almost heroic with his motivation to find love and a family but often succumbs to his own flaws and his desire for drugs that leads to the downfall of his character and only increasing his narcolepsy. There are moments now in that film that is more troubling, even as it progresses where we see early on, the innocent dreamer and by the end, he's not that anymore. It's a performance that cannot be overlooked as he won Best Actor in the Independent Spirit Awards and the Volpi Cup at the 1991 Venice Film Festival.
Sadly two years later, Phoenix died of a heroin overdose outside the Viper Room nightclub where whatever potential to be one of the best actors of his generation was shattered. Of course, it took a long time for many to recover from his death and looking at the films he did like Rob Reiner's Stand By Me, Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty, and Nancy Savoca's Dogfight, we see that he was an actor who had limitless range to practically do anything. Still, it's My Own Private Idaho where he not only gave the performance of his life but a glimpse into his troubled soul and this will be the film he will always be remembered for.
With an upcoming DVD release for March, My Own Private Idaho is a troubling yet enchanting masterpiece from Gus Van Sant helmed by the performance of the late River Phoenix. Thanks to Van Sant's approach to make something more universal with his offbeat take on Shakespeare, it is one of his many essential films along with To Die For, Good Will Hunting, Elephant, and the widely underrated Gerry. While this film is a great introduction for those interested in Van Sant or Phoenix, it's also a great introduction to the New Queer Cinema era of the early 1990s and the feelings of alienation surrounding the 1990s for youth and homosexuals. While the film will bring a sadness to those who've seen it before and for those who haven't seen it, it's at least a movie that touches your heart.
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