By Richard Roeper
Movie Review
The Mountain Between Us
Directed by Hany Abu-Asad
THAT鈥橲 SOME mountain, all right.
A gigantic mountain of ridiculous, snow-covered steaming…
Something.
For the first hour or so, The Mountain Between Us is a tedious and corny survival story, but at least it鈥檚 bearable, thanks mainly to the all-in performances from Kate Winslet and Idris Elba as a couple of strangers stranded in the unforgiving, icy wilderness of northern Utah, clawing and climbing and bantering and bickering as they desperately try to remain alive. And then… there鈥檚 the potential for romance? Are you kidding me?
He鈥檚 got broken ribs and cuts and bruises, she鈥檚 got a badly fractured lower leg and other injuries. They鈥檙e running out of food, they鈥檙e always on the brink of frostbite. He took a nasty spill on a steep cliff. She broke through the ice and nearly drowned. They were nearly killed by a cougar.
Not to mention the fact neither one of them has been near a shower or a bar of soap in a very long time.
Oh, and they鈥檙e fairly certain they鈥檙e going to die anytime soon,
And, oh yeah, she鈥檚 engaged.
What a perfect recipe for a Nicholas Sparks-type romance!
The Mountain Between Us begins at the jam-packed Denver airport, where all the flights have been postponed or canceled due to storm activity.
Winslet鈥檚 Alex, a plucky and somewhat nosy and slightly annoying photojournalist, is desperate to get home because she鈥檚 getting married tomorrow.
Elba鈥檚 Ben, a neurosurgeon, has to get to Baltimore because he鈥檚 scheduled to perform surgery on a 10-year-old boy in the morning.
Seems reasonable to ask why Alex is so far from home on the day before her wedding. (Yeah, yeah, work. Come one.) Or for that matter, why Ben isn鈥檛 already in Baltimore, getting a good night鈥檚 sleep before operating on a kid in the next morning.
But there they are.
Alex overhears Ben鈥檚 desperate please to find a flight, so she approaches him with a proposition: They鈥檒l split the cost of chartering a plane to a regional airport, where they can find connecting flights to their respective destinations.
Suffice to say that turns out to be a really bad idea. After a well-filmed and suitably harrowing plane crash sequence that kills off the pilot (but leaves his Lab retriever intact, because you DO NOT KILL THE DOG in movies such as this), Ben and Alex awake deep in the mountains, with her leg shattered and his torso bloody and bruised. (Only a few artfully painted scratches mar their handsome movie star faces.)
The beacon in the tail of the crumpled Cessna is broken. The food supply is extremely limited. They鈥檒l be able to survive for a few weeks on water — there鈥檚 plenty of snow and ice around to keep that supply going — but unless they find a path to civilization, they鈥檙e doomed.
Off they go! How about this way? What about that way? How about winging it? Yikes.
For a skilled and sophisticated photojournalist, Alex often comes across as whiny and na茂ve. (When Ben talks about how he loves working with the brain because the brain controls everything, from thoughts to emotions, Alex says, 鈥淏ut what about the heart?鈥 鈥淭he heart is just a muscle,鈥 grumbles Ben, as if talking to 12-year-old.)
Alex believes in taking increasingly reckless chances because after all, they鈥檙e probably going to die anyway. Ben is a humorless stiff who insists they should formulate a plan and stick with it, no matter what. Now is not the time to improvise!
So they butt heads and make-up, butt heads and reconcile, butt heads and really reconcile. At one point you almost start rooting for the elements to win out, just so these two would shut up.
The Mountain Between Us actually goes downhill in the scenes that take place in the relative comfort of the civilized world. (I鈥檓 not saying they wind up rescued. Maybe I鈥檓 talking about flashbacks, or scenes not involving the two main characters. Not telling.) Dermot Mulroney is saddled with the thankless role of Alex鈥檚 wet blanket of a fiance, Mark. We don鈥檛 see any reason why Mark and Alex would have been engaged in the first place.
Or any reason why the viewer should be engaged with the nonsense from the outset. — Chicago Sun-Times
Rating: 1 and a half 鈽卻
MTRCB Rating: PG
