The Mountain Between Us (MA15+)
Starring: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Dermot Mulroney
A tragic plane crash – two people lost in remote snow-covered mountains – needing to rely on each other to survive.
This is a great thriller, a top adventure movie – nah, mostly it’s a disaster romance (heavy on the romance) set against some pretty stunning scenery.
A two-hander with a bit of a cornball ending and a hefty slice of suspending disbelief, where the cinematography of Australian Mandy Walker (why do Australians make such good cinematographers – now there’s a discussion for another day) and the acting of English heavyweight duo Kate Winslet and Idris Elba save this from descending into farce.
She is a photographer desperate to get home in time for her wedding, he is a suave doctor needing to get across the country to perform lifesaving surgery on a sick child. Hiring a plane they are flown by a doomed Beau Bridges (no-one likes a third-wheel in a romance picture) and crash in Utah’s snowbound Uinta Mountains. Kate’s Alex has a leg fracture and Idris’s Ben, three broken ribs – but hey it’s Idris, one of the favourites to become the next Bond – three broken ribs are nothing.
Realising that no-one is coming to help, the dynamic duo embark on a terrifying journey across hundreds of miles of wilderness, pushing one another to endure and igniting an “unexpected” attraction. Okay, it’s not that unexpected. The writing is pretty much on the wall from the beginning and this movie isn’t so much “will they survive” as “when will they get together”.
This movie is another from the “it shouldn’t work but it does!” file and of course that is down mainly to the calibre of the actors involved and the stunning scenery.
– Tania Phillips
