By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Hany Abu- Assad
Cast: Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Beau Bridges, Linda Sorensen, Marci T. House, Vincent Gale and Dermot Mulroney.
Rating: Poor.
Hany Abu-Assad, director of the 2013 film “Omar”, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture makes his first English spoken film with “The Mountain Between Us” and this was indeed a major disappointment.
Based on the novel by Charles Martin, the movie tells the story of Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) and Ben Bass (Idris Elba) two strangers that need to arrive to their respective destinations but their flights have been cancelled due to a storm in Idaho.
Alex approaches Ben and shares him her idea of flying with a local pilot. Ben agrees and they both meet Walter (Beau Bridges).
Everything is fine until Walter suffers a heart attack and the plane crashes in the mountains.
Both Alex and Ben survive the accident and now they will need from each other in order to survive.
The major problem that I saw in “The Mountain Between Us” was in terms of the screenplay. This really surprised me since it was written by Chris Weitz, who wrote “About a Boy”, “Antz”, most reently “Rogue One” and Directed “ A Better Life”. These films he wrote and directed except “Antz” and “Rogue One” were very good films and Weitz knows how to write this type of characters with emotional conflicts.
Here the problem was the narrative and the arc of the story that really bothered me. The dialogue was too on the nose and the movie reached to a level that I didn´t care about it at all. The characters were vague and I didn´t feel anything for them.
The lines of Kate Winslet in the movie were constantly said and by the time that Act II starts we already know what was going on.
The performances of both Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are good but not great. This has to do with the poor material that was given to them at their disposal.
Both actors are really talented and they will do whatever they can but unfortunately when you have material like this one there is nothing to much to do.
Visually is a film that I accept that it looked really good and the camera work was really fine. The problem was some shots didn´t make any sense and that was in part of Abu-Assad`s directing.
Assad should have also focused in the performance and the way how some shots made sense through the film.
The ending of the film I didn´t know if I wanted to laugh or to be upset since it was one of the most cheesiest that I have seen in a while.
The movie was a huge mess and it was predictable from beginning to end.
The pacing was slow and it´s a shame because with a cast like this one you had everything in your favor to do deliver a good product but that was not the case here.
“The Mountain Between Us” is a movie that I don´t think you will enjoy and I cannot give a recommendation to it.