'Turn the River'

Rating:

BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

May 9, 2008

Why has Chris Eigeman, the longtime member of Whit Stillman's acting ensemble ("Metropolitan," "The Last Days of Disco"), waited so long to get behind the camera? "Turn the River," his directing debut (he also wrote the script), is a small-scale but thoroughly engrossing drama full of strong performances and sharp dialogue. It's a noir with a female lead in Famke Janssen (the "X-Men" flicks), who hides her supermodel beauty behind the hardened, haunted face of a pool shark hoping to hustle up enough money to skip town with her young son, Gulley (Jaymie Dornan).

That's the plot, simple and somewhat imperfect, but Eigeman is focused on character: Nearly everyone here seems alive and real and complicated, from the local pool-hall owner (Rip Torn) to Gulley's bullying, insecure father (Matt Ross). Janssen is heartbreaking as a woman whose tough exterior hides a mom's mushiness. Eigeman may not be a visual stylist, but "Turn the River" marks the belated emergence of a fine new filmmaker.

TURN THE RIVER (R). Noirish drama about a pool shark trying to hustle enough money to skip town with her son. Famke Janssen, Rip Torn. Directed by Chris Eigeman. 1:32 (profanity). At Village East Cinema, Manhattan.