The Mountain Between Us

Two factors save The Mountain Between Us from romantic oblivion: Breathtaking cinematography (Mandy Walker) and two fine actors, Idris Elba as Ben and Kate Winslet as Alex. They are lost in the cold snow somewhere in the mountains of Idaho or Colorado after a small plane accident, but fortunately he's a neurosurgeon and she's a plucky photographer. Lucky about his medical skills.

If Nicholas Sparks could do lost in the snow, then he could have written this rather trite and predictable romance. Why wouldn't they fall in love with no one else around and such attractive people to boot? That they both are vulnerable becomes obvious; that they will fall in love is a given of the genre and maybe of survival itself when there's no one else around.

Lest I forget, a lovable dog also is a tie to bind. To be fair, director Hany Abu-Assad and his writers J.Mills Goodloe and Chris Weitz keep the real romance from happening through at least half the film. During that blessed time we can enjoy the spectacle and the survival techniques. Always with the thought of what we would do in those circumstances.

More outrageous than the clichéd circumstance is the fact that she needs medical help consistently where he just needs it toward the end. Why then does the old trope of the damsel in distress come to mind? Why not,in a film shameless with tear jerking.

He just lost his wife, and she doesn't seem overly joyed about her impending wedding and her husband, Mark (Dermot Mulroney). So you know what's going to happen right to the end.

I am happy to see Canada so beautifully captured on the screen. As for me, I felt captured in a melodramatic survival story from which I needed rescue.

There are films that I only watch because of the actors. Kate Winslet is always a reason for me, and Idris Elba can't do any harm either. Both of them have the ability to act very relaxed, there is never anything tense or over the top - good British acting, in other words. The story is that of a struggle for survival, but never deviates from keeping the focus on both actors. It is told in a relaxed way, has some exciting moments, but actually you ask yourself all the time whether the two get each other or not. In the end it is a romantic story with a light humour, which is mainly thanks to Winslet's laconic style. Entertaining, and very welcome in the dark times of November 2020

I really enjoyed this movie. The cinematography was absolutely stunning & the two leads were well played. I bought into the story & left the cinema with a smile on my face. A girl could drown in Idris Elba's eyes!

I don't understand the terrible reviews on IMDb. The acting was not terrible, nor was the story-line. Critics seem to expect a romantic survival film to be somehow cerebral. Most movies are just regurgitated ideas, so the hate here is undeserved in my opinion. Maybe these are the same reviewers that thought La La Land deserved all those Oscars? Now there was a boring movie! Don't get me started....!

Don't believe the highbrow critics here. Grab your besties & have an enjoyable night out at the movies.

Idris Elba after scoring a mammoth hit with UK TV's "Luther" has really struggled to make a breakthrough as a leading man into A-grade movies. Although he's had some strong supporting roles ("Molly's Game" and "Star Trek Beyond" for example) and small bit parts in the Marvel universe, when he has landed a lead role they are in films best forgotton (e.g. "Bastille Day"; "The Dark Tower"). This is seldom down to his performance. Here he is given more of a chance to shine, in what is almost a two-hander with Kate Winslet ("Triple 9", "Steve Jobs") for most of the film. And he is the best thing in the film: lots of the brooding look that he is so famous for.

Elba plays Ben Bass, a neuro-surgeon stranded at Boise airport who has to get back to Baltimore for an important operation. Winslett playing Alex Martin, a famous photo-journalist, is stranded with him and equally desperate to travel as she is due to get married in New York the following day. The two club together to hire a plane from charter pilot Walter (Beau Bridges, "Homeland", "The Descendents"). But in terrible conditions, and with a medical emergency, the plane crash lands in the snow of the Rockies, and Ben and Alex (together with Walter's Labrador) need to struggle to survive in the wilderness. The problem is that they are an odd couple, and constantly wind each other up the wrong way.

It's a well-worn tale that has been portrayed many times before in films like "Alive" and "The Grey", so what makes the film live or die is the quality of the screenplay and the chemistry between the characters. Unfortunately the former by Chris Weitz (co-writer on "Rogue One") is rather clunky, and in the latter case I just didn't feel it. Winslett's character is just so incredibly whiney and annoying that the thought of Ben doing anything with her other than hitting her with the shovel and feeding her to the dog seems unlikely! Winslett seems to sense that too, since I never felt she was completely invested in her character. Aside from one (impressive) monologue, I found it to be a so-so performance from her.

Aside from Elba the other star of the show is the landscape of the High Uintascape in North East Utah of the which is beautifully filmed, on location by Mandy Walker ("Hidden Figures").

The story leaps from improbability to improbability and raises more questions than it answers: in a survival situation should you walk or stay put? If you have a dog, should you eat it* and what condiments are appropriate? Does an iced-over river have any current flowing under the ice? If they both died, would the audience care?

No spoilers with answers to any of these (*apart from the dog... just joking, they don't!) , but the ending is as corny as you can get... but it still gave me a lump in my throat. #suckered!

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad, overall if you have a rainy afternoon you need to fill then this a perfectly pleasant movie to veg in front of, but it neither completely satisfies as a romance nor as an adventure flick but falls rather uncomfortably between the two stools.

Some films have left me speechless. Not simply because their execution was unlike anything I've seen in the past, or opened my eyes to a story so insane thinking someone came up with this idea, but speechless cause there's so little to say about it as the film doesn't ask any new or interesting questions. The Mountain Between Us is that kind of film despite having 2 very talented actors I respect in this romantic drama.

The story begins with Idris Elba as a doctor rushing to Baltimore for surgery and Kate Winslet off to get married to her fiancé and they agree to work together to get to their destinations. However, their plane crashes into the middle of the mountains and leaves them stranded with only a golden retriever and their wits to find shelter and keep one another from falling apart.

Kate and Idris both give committed performances even through the harsh weather conditions displayed. The cinematographer sets up some pretty beautiful shots of the mountains and the scale and distance the actors are from any form of civilization so that was something I appreciated in a post "every month a CGI fest blockbuster" world. Sadly the compliments end here.

What kills the film is it's SO UTTERLY PREDICTABLE. If you have seen any romantic film ever, you know what will happen. The dialogue is void of any psychological questions of dealing with a stranger alone for weeks despite the film feels like it's only 6 days tops. Not as viewer did I feel they went through harsh conditions as Kate's hair the entire time looked freshly curled.

The Mountain Between Us on the trailer felt what could have been a solid survival film, but instead got a corny and sometimes boring romantic drama. Outside of one genuine jump scare that truly surprised me, the film just feels lost in trying to be a romantic movie and survival movie at the same time with very little chemistry to weave them together.