Love is in the mountain air
FOR HOPELESS ROMANTICS Story puts love through the test of time, space and distance
Both cheesy and predictable, The Mountain Between Us is a thrilling romantic film which will have you glued to the screen as the romantic story unfolds. Starring Academy award-winning actress Kate Winslet as the damsel in distress, photographic journalist Alex Martin, and Idris Elba as dashing neurosurgeon hero Dr Ben Bass, who saves the day.
We meet the characters through a stressful situation at the airport where their flight has been cancelled due to bad weather. However, for determined problem-solver Alex, getting to her wedding seems to cloud her logic and she not only manages to book a small charted flight, but gently ropes in Dr Bass.
It is particularly in this scene that the viewer gets to understand who wears the pants between these two.
Anyone who has either missed a flight, got delayed or told to wait and sleep at the airport will relate to the characters.
However, Dr Bass has the growing fear that he might loose his wife on the operating table and reluctantly gets on the chartered flight.
After experiencing a traumatic plane crash, caused by the pilot suffering a stroke in midair, the pair find themselves on top of an icy mountain in the middle of nowhere.
Having survived the crash, Ben then sets up house in the wrecked plane and helps Alex get back on her feet after she suffered an injury.
Caught between looking for help and staying put with the hope that the someone would come looking for them, the couple has to endure the freezing cold weather, while wild animals roam around them. It is through this challenging time that we get to notice the early stages of affection between the two emerging.
Now a runaway bride, Alex finds herself having to blanket her fear of dying by staying optimistic, even though the odds are against her.
Her journalistic character sees her snooping into the life of her saviour Ben, who is very cagey about his past.
Her blonde curled hair and sea-blue eyes see the stern doctor peel away his layers, both literally and figuratively, as during the last attempt at finding help, the couple affirm their feelings for one another through a passionate lovemaking scene which takes place in the run-down cottage they find solace in.
The film is based on a true story and a book by Charles Martin with the same title and is directed by Hany Abu-Assad, who managed to perfectly merge the dramatic side of the film along with the romantic cliches. The highlight was how both actors are of European descent yet one of them stayed fully in character as an American.