The River King is a 2005 film directed by Nick Willing and starring Edward Burns, Rachelle Lefèvre and Jennifer Ehle as a policeman, student and teacher all searching for the truth behind the apparent suicide of a young man at a small private school.

[1] Two young boys discover the body of Gus Pierce, a seventeen-year-old student at the prestigious Haddan School, in a frozen river.

After another argument with his supervisor his partner brings him to a party at the Haddan School where he picks up a bribe from the principal and tries to persuade Abel to drop his inquiries.

Betsy follows Abel home from the party and shows him more photographs, with dark shadows next to Harry, Carlin's boyfriend and Gus' tormentor in Chalk House, the most exclusive dorm on campus.

Abel is also forced to face facts from his past, and the strain of his relationship with his father, as the sights and sounds he encounters in the investigation trigger memories of his big brother Frank's suicide.

Eventually he discovers that Gus was bullied and hazed by Harry and the other Chalk House boys involved in a secret society, while the teacher supervising the dorm, Betsy's fiancé, turned a blind eye.

Abel's frustration leads him to pressure a young boy from the dorm whom he suspects witnessed Gus being assaulted in the lavatory by Harry and his friends.