Fine Lines

Experiencing life as it is meant. Living on the edge and not settling for complacency. Despite all challenges that may come across and take you off your feet, you have THE POWER OF CHOICE to do something beautiful with your life. Absolutely loved this.

A fantastic film any climbing enthusiast will enjoy. It is not your typical climbing documentary where you follow a climber on their adventure overcoming some impossibly hard route. Instead, this is 20 of the most recognizable faces from all disciplines of the sport (Alex Honnold, Adam Ondra, Lynn Hill, etc) each having a very open conversation about some of the most difficult aspects of climbing. Topics range from their draws to climbing, the inherent risk in the sport, a very real look at death, the drawbacks of social media on professionals lives, and far more.

Many may be turned off by a climbing documentary without a specific mountain to be overcome, but it is a fantastic glimpse into how these amazing athletes view some incredibly difficult questions often not considered. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in climbing in any way.

The movie itself is a compilation of interviews of well known rock climbers, mountaineers, ice climbers and paraclimbers. A big chunk of the footage is reused from previous reel rock scenes and the movie tries to assign what risk is in climbing and in the life of the athletes. It falls short on focusing on... something, the storyline follows too many perspectives and you loose focus on the movie itself. Of course the trailer and the poster is misleading, making you think of great movies such as "king lines" with Chris Sharma.... but "fine lines"is anything but that. The soundtrack is too "dreamy", there is very little action, and the action showed is presented in short unintelligible sequences...followed by some static scenes, losing its flow of action. All in all it is not a typical climbing movie, it is more of a mash up that tries to give climbing this aura of a demigod activity for "very whole" people. I, personally think that this movie is for a certain type of climber or for some people that start climbing and they are charmed by the "holiness" of it.

A refreshing look into the intimate and thought provoking topics we don't often see extreme athletes get into- certainly not in such depth and honesty; a contemplative and philosophical look into the reasons behind why some people put their lives at risk when there is not much to gain from the act. Finally, we get to see incredible women alongside the men in this sport too, my favourite "climbing" film to date - though it's really so much more than climbing.

I have watched over 30 films on climbing, and this by far is my favourite. Much care went into this immensely inspirational documentary which included athletes/legends that spanned generations. Unlike other films in this genre which take on the same format of following the protagonist and their "adventure"(Meru, Free solo, Dawn Wall and dozen others ) this film stands out because it delves into their psyche and is for those who enjoy being contemplative and thinking about the "why's" of life. It's not at all sport centric and deeply meditative. They hit on topics you don't usually hear them talk about. Brilliantly done, and have watched more than once.