This is the kind of movie with a deep emotional undertone and display of character that you don't see very often these days. Far from being superficial, this movie has more to it than 90 percent of stuff produced. Acting, setup and direction is all supreme. The director gives his characters time to develop, so you really feel you know them. But this is not a movie for those looking for a lot of action or violence, which is only applied when appropriate here.

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.

I will say that Chris Eigeman's "Turn the River" constitutes a worthy character study, but I did find it a little slow. Famke Janssen plays Kailey Sullivan, a woman with some problems in life. However, she does have one noble aim: rescuing her son (Jaymie Dornan) from his abusive father. From here, much of the movie centers on Kailey's playing pool and how it works into her plan.

Like I said, this movie works best as a character study, as I found it a little slow. One thing that I wondered while watching it is how they film people playing pool. You can't tell where the balls will go when people hit them, so do the people behind the camera just film the scene over and over again until the balls go the right way? Anyway, OK seeing maybe once. Also starring Rip Torn.