Mountain is the pits of disappointment The Mountain Between Us (M)
112 mins
I★★1⁄2 t’s probable that when Kate Winslet’s agent called her touting the script for The Mountain Between Us, the Oscar-winning actress simply had a Jerry Maguiremoment.
Or perhaps she was enticed by the opportunity to work closely with James Bond prospect Idris Elba (The Wire, Luther, Thor) in a confined space, in what is essentially a two-hander about a couple of strangers stranded on a mountain top when their rented plane crashes. But if I know Kate (and I’m wistfully sure she and I would make great pals), she didn’t choose this film for its well-written, multi-dimensional script. And so you have two fine actors doing their damnedest with material which is so predictable in its storyline and so flaccid in execution that even though the characters are in great peril, the viewer manages not to feel a thing.
As a counterpoint to trying to get off the mountain, the thrust of the story involves Winslet’s photographer Alex trying to elicit personal information (‘‘You’re a journalist? That would explain the questions’’) from Elba’s taciturn neurosurgeon, Ben, whose declaration that ‘‘The heart is just a muscle’’ indicates he’s mysteriously not in the mood for love. But since we’re the only ones who can see the ‘‘obvious back story’’ beacon, it’s frustrating that it takes our pair most of the film to open up to one another.
With these stars, and in the hands of director Hany Abu-Assad, whose Paradise Now and Omar are genuine Middle-East thrillers, Mountain should have been much better.
Instead, it feels like the airport novel Alex should simply have settled down with while waiting for the next available flight. She’d have saved us all a lot of trouble. – Sarah Watt