by Eric Blume
I know what you’re thinking: you’ve watched the trailer for The Mountain Between Us, the new movie where Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are stranded in the mountains together after a plane crash. And since you’re a smart moviegoer, you probably thought, 'okay the trailer looks a little bit terrible, but it’s Kate! And Idris! They’re so sexy and talented! Surely the movie itself can’t be that bad?'
I’m sad to report, it truly is...
There’s no plot to report, that’s it. Kate and Idris are the only survivors of a private plane crash in some seriously remote snowy mountains. There’s nowhere for the story to go other than the two of them falling in love, so I can’t imagine this review contains spoilers. Which would of course be fine if there were any artistry in that journey.
You know you’re in trouble when the plane crash itself is one of the most deadly dull crashes in screen history. Then you realize what you have ahead of you: ninety more minutes of uneventful, contrived survival sequences between two severely underdeveloped characters. The nature of the story is that we know little about this duo, and nothing ever deepens. They are accompanied by a very handsome labrador retriever, who is exploited less for reaction shots than one might think in a movie of this nature.
I’m not sure what went wrong. Director Hany Abu-Assad has two Oscar nominations under his belt for Best Foreign Film, for his stunning Paradise Now (2005) and solid Omar (2013). This guy is a talented filmmaker. He wants to pull off a slow-burn love story where the characters are robbed of everything but their most basic needs and emotions, but the script doesn’t support him, and he seems unsteady with his lead actors.
Kate Winslet is one of the most charismatic actresses to ever stand in front of a camera. Yet, in this movie, she's missing even her signature spark; she seems preoccupied or bored, as if waiting for the shooting schedule to wrap up. And, sadly, she and Elba have zero chemistry, surprising as that might be. Elba fares a hair better, but his character is a collection of love story clichés. They look stunning together, but both are curiously uninspired.
Despite a basic situation that should inspire abject terror, both leads wake from the violent plane crash with little more than a sigh. It’s a film constructed by movie emotions and motivations, not real human behavior. It's schematic and false, engineered to provoke an audience response. You end up rooting for the most authentic character in the movie, the dog.
