The Mountain Between Us Movie Review

The Mountain Between Us (2017)

Buy The Mountain Between Us on Amazon Video // Buy the novel
Written by: Scott Cooper (written for the screen by), Donald E. Stewart (manuscript) 
Directed by: Hany Abu-Assad
Starring: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Beau Bridges, Dermot Mulroney, Linda Sorensen
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
When a plane they've chartered to beat a storm crashes in a remote mountain area, two strangers must trust each other in order to survive the extreme elements. With little hope of rescue, they begin a perilous journey to survive.

Verdict
It's a genre that's been done before and better. The first two thirds gloss over the survival aspect and reduce the emotional aspect to a moment of passion. We've seen survival movies and stories where people connect due to extreme circumstances. This could have done that and more, but it doesn't. It's a bland movie with an ending that makes the entire thing worse.
Skip it.

Review
Based on the Charles Martin novel and starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba this wastes no time jumping right into it. Within minutes they're on a small plane and enough clues have been dropped that with no idea what this movie is about you'd know that plane is going to crash. Their pilot states he didn't file a flight plan and I wasn't buying that. It's at least gross negligence. Would that be allowed? Google states it can provided you don't require instruments to fly. Which means no clouds, fog, or darkness.

I was hoping the crash would be visceral. It wasn't bad, but it's just not as adrenaline pumping as it should be. With Sully and Flight the threshold for that type of scene has been set high.

We get two strangers trying to make it work and I wondered where this would go. They're in a hopeless situation and I began wondering if desperation would fuel a moment of passion as they desire to be close to someone before the end.
I really wanted this to detail how they survive. It looks pretty easy from what we see. It also doesn't do a good job with the passage of time. Winslet's eye heals up quickly, the bruise already yellow, but it seems at most only a few days have passed.

This has the usual story tropes for the genre. Things go bad to worse as they try to survive. This isn't a fast movie and it doesn't drive home the desperation like it should. We see very little day to day or details. This movie could be a survival guide, but we see almost none of that. It downplays them starving to death and I can't tell you how they stayed warm. These are the details I want that make this story real instead of a farce. The ending really drags, and I can't discuss the ending without spoiling it, so here we go.

I liked the ending at first. They both are back in reality. Elba finally connected with someone after his divorce but she has a fiance. He's back to his old life, faced with having to box his feelings when a week ago he was facing death. With all of the moments we could focus on, this dives into a pseudo love story. This would have been much more intriguing if life went on and the mountain was a memory, part fantasy, horror, and trauma. I was hoping for understated, but this went for the happy ending. That left a bad taste after an already bland movie.

Into the Wild explores similar themes of survival while also exploring a character that's an outsider.  If you want something from the survival genre, that's a much better choice.