- Film Review
- Reviewed By Andrew Collins
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5 out of 5
Rob Reiner's bucolic, nostalgic drama is widely agreed to be one of the most successful adaptations of a story by horror master Stephen King - in this case, a novella called The Body from his primarily non-supernatural collection of stories, Different Seasons. It's a likeable but hard-centred picaresque set in 1950s Oregon that blends the themes of childhood friendship, parental pressure and the loss of innocence into a Boy Scout-style roving adventure. The bookish Wil Wheaton (played by Richard Dreyfuss as an adult) leads a gang of friends on a rural camping odyssey to find the fabled body of a missing boy. Each is something of a social misfit, subtly played by the young cast, which includes the late River Phoenix and Corey Feldman (The Goonies), and their problems at home are deftly revealed and resolved against rollicking action sequences (involving an oncoming train, a leech-infested swamp and a vicious junkyard dog) and an eventual showdown with bullies.
Plot Summary
Coming-of-age drama, based on a story by Stephen King, starring Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix. A writer looks back on his childhood in late-1950s Oregon, in particular the time when he and his friends set out to find the corpse of a boy believed to have been hit by a train.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Gordie Lachance
- Wil Wheaton
- Chris Chambers
- River Phoenix
- Teddy Duchamp
- Corey Feldman
- Vern Tessio
- Jerry O'Connell
- The writer
- Richard Dreyfuss
- Ace Merrill
- Kiefer Sutherland
- Billy Tessio
- Casey Siemaszko
- Charlie Hogan
- Gary Riley
- Eyeball Chambers
- Bradley Gregg
- Vince Desjardins
- Jason Oliver
- Denny Lachance
- John Cusack
Crew
- Director
- Rob Reiner
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