 In 1993 , Streep appeared with Jeremy Irons , Glenn Close and Winona Ryder in The House of the Spirits , set during the military dictatorship of Chile . The film was not well received by critics . Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote : " This is really quite an achievement . It brings together Jeremy Irons , Meryl Streep , Winona Ryder , Antonio Banderas , and Vanessa Redgrave and insures that , without exception , they all give their worst performances ever " . The following year , Streep featured in The River Wild , as the mother of children on a whitewater rafting trip who encounter two violent criminals ( Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly ) in the wilderness . Though critical reaction was generally mixed , Peter Travers of Rolling Stone found her to be " strong , sassy and looser than she has ever been onscreen " . 
