The Mountain Between Us (2017)

This film sounds more dramatic than it is overall, but the story captures you regardless.

Alex and Ben (Winslet and Elba), are complete strangers who meet because they have share the need to get to the same place, but a storm is going to prevent them from doing this. Alex then comes up with the idea that they can hire a tiny plane and someone to drive it. Unfortunate events result in them crashing and only having their dead pilot’s dog for company. They need to figure out how to survive on a completely snow-covered mountain, whilst debating whether to leave to attempt to find help, risking Alex’s health – as she injured her leg in the crash or battle it out, and risk their lives by staying there.

OOOOOH DRAMA.

 

I feel like in recent years we’ve had a few films like this with the undertones of survival in them, and I’m not mad about it. They aren’t getting repetitive, because although there are going to be obvious similarities, the cast, and intricacies of the story vary. This film was no different. This is what initially intrigued me with this – the cast. Both fantastic actors, both with some big titles under their belts, and both bloody British (yaaaaaaaas!), but was there going to be chemistry? They were really, the only two actors we saw throughout this whole film, so they HAD to be good together for this film to be even slightly successful.

My god, there was chemistry – they both worked wonderfully together, and I must say Kate Winslet – your American accent isn’t infuriating. As soon as the film starts we are left with just the two of them, and very, very early on in the film the plane crash happens. At this point I really thought, there is no way this is going to be good. There is no way they can be amusing for nearly 2 hours. I was so wrong. We really got to understand the characters, and over those few weeks they were together we got to learn about them, and share a journey with them – the experience really was as corny, yet thrilling as I’m making it sound.

There were some thrilling moments, like the very real (for them, anyway) danger of going for a walk right at the top of a mountain, slipping, and almost falling off the edge of a mountain. The struggle of being stuck with either just yourself, or someone you barely know and might not like. The fear that you could get attacked by a Cougar. It was all captured well, of course dramatized, but not to the point of it being uncomfortable to watch.

The story was well paced, and set in a beautiful location – it’s hard to believe tonnes of effort was needed for this to be shot well – but then again, what do I know about shooting a film at all, let alone in the snow? The film only had one slight downfall for me. This was the fact that a love story was introduced. I cannot say it wasn’t powerful, because of the connection that Elba and Winslet had, but it at the end of the film because kind of cringe because of the conclusion to the story. I will not deny that the situation they were in couldn’t happen in real life, it was just a perfect example of oh, for god sake does everyone HAVE to fall in love and live happily ever after? Couldn’t one get killed by a bear and the other tell their story?

It was heart-warming, heart breaking, shocking, and pleasant all at once. It was everything I wanted from it, and I would recommend it – and say it’s worth more than some of the ratings I have seen so far.

7.5/10