The Mountain Between Us

Director: Hany Abu-Assad

Cast: Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Beau Bridges, Dermot Mulroney

Based upon the novel by Charles Martin, The Mountain Between Us tentatively explores the strained relationship between two strangers who are stranded together on a remote mountain near the Rockies as their two seater plane crashes en route to Denver Colorado from Idaho.

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad who brought such strong films including the Oscar Nominated Foreign Language film Paradise Now and Omar to the international cinema audiences, The Mountain Between Us is held together literally by strong performances by Oscar winner Kate Winslet (The Reader) and Idris Elba (Prometheus, Pacific Rim) who play Alex and Ben.

Alex is trying to get to New York to marry her fiancée Mark briefly played by Dermot Mulroney (Truth, August: Osage County and Stoker), while Ben, a neurosurgeon, is planning on being in New York to perform an operation on a boy with a brain tumour.

As the trailer suggests, things go horribly wrong and Alex and Ben are left stranded on an icy mountain in the Rockies with only themselves to depend upon. At their wits end and with no hint of rescue insight they manage to assist each other in escaping the mountain for safer ground and search for any form of human habitation.

Naturally as their flight to safety becomes increasingly more perilous they began to not only trust each other but also gradually fall in love, despite being complete strangers.

Which goes to show that at the core of human relationships is a basic desire for survival. That desire outstrips any prejudice and preconceived notions of who is best equipped to survive, something which director Abu-Assad took great pains to reveal to the audience.

The Mountain Between Us could have been a brilliant film, but unfortunately it does get weighed down by its own emotional intensity which is a too heavy  and long winded considering that there really are two actors in the entire film.

Swift editing and some effective character backstory would have made Alex and Ben’s fight for survival more fascinating and pertinent. 1 hour and 52 minutes is way too long for two people and a dog to be stranded on a mountain.

The film gets a rating of 7 out of 10 and is recommended for audiences that enjoy romantic disaster films which are rare to say the least.

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