A gorgeous, thoughtful film that all truly snaps into place in the last few moments, to incredible effect. The craft here is top-tier, at all levels - the writing, the performances, the camera-work, the sound design, the pacing. I've now watched it twice; this is a film that improves on second viewing.
Fair warning: if you know about hiking, there's stuff here that is incredibly frustrating to watch the first time through. Some moments feel like outright mistakes, to the point where you may actually find yourself on the brink of losing trust in the filmmakers. But in the end, when all is made clear, I think the film gets away with it - and the payoff makes it that much more satisfying. Being brought to the brink as a viewer like that, and then having your trust rewarded. It's quite an accomplishment, and it's down to the excellent balance and care that have been put in by everyone involved.
The visuals are absolutely lush, artfully considered, and at times almost painterly in their consideration of light, texture, movement, and composition. So much of the storytelling is done through the setting, and the filmmakers manage to make that setting expressive, emotive, intimate, expansive, withholding, overwhelming, all-encompassing - without it feeling show-offy or too self-aware.
There's a similar quality in the performances of both principle actors. In such a sparsely-populated story, Lisa Jacqueline Starrett and James Tang together take on the tremendous lift of carrying the narrative between them without one overwhelming the other, and without overplaying anything one way or another. At the end of the film, it becomes very clear just how enormous that lift was for both actors. Bravo to each of them as individuals, and to their commitment to teamwork here.
And that's bearing in mind that for most of the film, the true narrative is almost entirely unspoken. It's being built brick by brick by the setting, and by emotional resonances between these performers as they craft characters almost entirely alone "on-stage", within the frame of the strange and expansive setting.
A few spare moments of exposition feel a bit forced - but within the breathtakingly ambitious "assignment" the filmmakers set for themselves, this was inevitable (as I watched, I found myself simultaneously impatient for more character development and at a loss for how it could naturally be provided within the confines of the story). Thinking back after all is said and done, these moments which seemed clunky in situ actually make a kind of retrospective sense in their clunkiness. (And they work better during the second viewing.)
Finally - as someone with a personal history of trauma - I deeply appreciate the deft, nuanced, complex, messy look at the psychology of being in the midst of trauma. The decisions we make, the lies we tell ourselves, the ways we betray ourselves and each other, the things that become meaningful, the ways things make no sense and the ways they make all the sense in the world. I don't know if I've ever seen this facet of the trauma experience so well-represented. The absolute quiet horror of it just isn't easy to portray, because for all its devastation and inner chaos, it isn't flashy or readily condensed.
In summary - GORGEOUS film; well-worth the watch. It pays off with plenty to think about and appreciate long after the final credits.
