The Mountain Between Us
I randomly came across this flick and I like a survival movie as much as the next guy so I thought I’d give it a go. The movie itself is OK, but once again you figure out in about 2 seconds that the film was written by a couple of entitled, rich people, and not anyone who has actually spent a weekend camping. But hey, the ivy league degree is more important than realism (or even basic accuracy) in Hollywood, and when you have buddies who will write you positive reviews then all is well right?
Idris Elba is kind of the flavor of the moment, but he hasn’t had that definitive movie yet. It kind of looked like ‘The Dark Tower’ was going to be his ticket to super stardom, but then that movie pretty much sucked. There has been chatter about him being the next James Bond, but that hasn’t happened yet either. Also, he was in ‘Star Trek: Beyond’ but gave a pretty much forgettable performance there.
Here, Elba plays a neurosurgeon from England who has the misfortune of running into Kate Winslet at the airport. You see, a big storm is coming in and all the planes are grounded, so Winslet says to Elba, “Hey…let’s go charter a plane together” and he’s like, “whatever” and all is well until the guy flying the plane has a stroke and they crash (you can see that in the poster, so it’s not a spoiler). Kate and Idris survive along with the dog who was in the plane for some reason.
Ok, so now you have a couple stuck together on the top of the mountain and they immediately start bickering. Kate Winslet plays her typical character of, “a lady up to her eyeballs in drama because she can’t figure out what she wants.” Once I started thinking about it, I realized I’ve never seen her play any other character. In ‘Titanic’ she was this drama queen with the world at her feet who couldn’t figure out what she wanted (and was playing around with the idea of suicide, although she couldn’t really decide if she wanted to go through with it, then DiCaprio came along and distracted her into not being sure if she wanted to get involved with him), the only other film I’ve seen her in was ‘The Holiday’ in which she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to be involved with Rufus Sewell or Jack Black (the fact that she eventually decides on Jack Black indicates maybe she IS better off not making a decision after all).
Eventually they decide to walk down the mountain and it takes them like 3 weeks although they never show any signs of stress or weight loss (they probably couldn’t afford the CGI). Along the way, they have a bunch of soulful discussions about dying, and how they really want to live, but that they think they’re probably going to die. They never even once consider eating the dog, which I thought was a shame, and could have been a great little family squabble.
Oh, Kate Winslet needed to get on the flight because she was about to be married, which is a really traumatic life event for a person who can’t make a decision (so she’s kind of relieved to have crashed on the mountain). During their ordeal, they fall in love, but when they’re rescued…BANG…she’s back with her betrothed.
OK…now, you see how you, kind of by accident, have an interesting little dramatic set up there with all kinds of ideas you can explore. Is it OK for two people who think they are going to die to find solace with one another? Is the non-attached guy taking advantage of the woman if something does happen…or does the extreme situation justify the passion of the moment? If something does happen and they survive, will there be repercussions later? See…see…you’re dealing with terror and craziness and all kinds of power dynamics, so there was the opportunity to do something really cool. Actually…you know what they should have done? They should have filmed this like Rashomon where Idris Elba sees their relationship as this beautiful thing that developed over the course of their escape, and then they show Winslet’s perspective and it’s like something that she doesn’t really want but she goes along with because she thinks she’s going to die otherwise, then…get this…they can show the DOG’s perspective! Yeah, the dog would be sitting there like, “gruUUUMPhhhhh?” with his head sideways watching the whole time…just watching.
But no, they didn’t do anything fun like that. They just had Winslet go straight back to the husband and then fret over the color of the napkins at her wedding, before calling up Elba and being like, “We can’t…it’ll never work…it was just the intensity of the moment…” And Elba’s like, “Lady, I KNOW that, that’s why I don’t CALL you, because you’re ENGAGED!!!” and Winslet is like, “I know…but you don’t answer me, and here are some pictures of me naked, but it will never work..and I…” Elba: “OK bye!”
Two seconds later they are embracing because they just couldn’t run away. In real life, the girl would have turned back around and Elba would have kept running. Seriously, watch this movie, the girl is a nightmare, don’t date a person like that. Otherwise, not a bad survival movie.
