Everest

Released:  September 25^th, 2015

Rated:  PG-13

Distributor:  Universal Pictures

Starring:  Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Michael Kelly, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Jake Gyllenhaal

Directed by:  Baltasar Kormákur

Written by:  William Nicholson, Simon Beaufoy

Personal Bias Alert:  fascinated by Everest climbers, likes the cast

5.3 of 10

            Just before all hell breaks loose, the journalist in Everest poses an infamously unanswerably question to his fellow climbers:  Why.  Why pay tens of thousands of dollars, why put yourself through the hellish grind, why risk losing fingers, toes, or even your life?  The real question is why do you need to touch the top of the world, but that’s far too grandiose, even for a writer.  Still, the question hangs over every story featuring the looming mountain, even one that only aspires to disaster-epic greatness.

            This dramatization of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster finds itself torn between answering this question and delivering high-altitude thrills, never finding the right balance to satisfactorily deliver either.  Director Baltasar Kormákur, whose previous films include the lackluster thrillers 2 Guns and Contraband, certainly relishes the opportunity to induce vertigo on his 3D-viewing audience.  A handful of scenes will leave you pressing back into your seat as the camera pans down a seemingly endless fall, but the effect is fleeting, and Everest stumbles when it must move the audience with its own two feet.  The film, for obvious logistical reasons, had to do much of it’s shooting on the stage.  Instead of employing green screens to give a sense of scale, Kormákur keeps most of the shots pretty tight, narrowing much of the film’s tension down to don’t-stop-or-you’ll-freeze instead of don’t-stop-or-you’ll-freeze-and-then-stumble-off-a-cliff.  It’s not that the film lacks tension; the back half delivers some mild thrills, but the potential that’s left unused is as massive as that mountain.

            On the flip side, the film’s cookie-cutter characters prevent it from exploring why this group of people converged on the mountain that fateful day in May, 1996.  You know you’re in trouble when the film introduces a loud-mouth Texan within the first few scenes, and the rest of the characters are either that broadly drawn or don’t get enough screen time for you to really care.  Granted, they have a lot of ground to cover here keeping track of the two key climbing expeditions, which each put more than 11 people on the mountain.  But this lack of depth, even with its most prominent character, Adventure Consultants leader Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), makes the long buildup to the disaster seem a bit tedious.  Kormákur and writers William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy simply don’t provide us with a reason to get interested in the ragtag group as they shuffle around the mountain, slowly acclimatizing and preparing for their summit push.  This lackluster buildup culminates in the aforementioned infamous question scene, which falls flat on its sappy face.

            Even with all this meandering, there’s a certain affability to the whole proceeding.  Nearly everywhere you look is a solid actor, be it big names like Jake Gyllenhaal and Kiera Knightly (with an overdone Australian accent) or recognizable faces like Clarke and John Hawkes.  These are people that, even phoning it in like they are here, have that magical watchability factor that makes their putzing seem mildly pleasant. 

            All this mediocrity spreads itself out over two hours, which feels even longer when you’re sitting in the theater.  The story itself follows all the familiar genre beats, and you’ll find yourself waiting for long periods for the next obvious shoe to drop.  When it eventually does, it lands with a slap instead of a thud, and you never quite get the satisfying thrill you were really hoping for.

Other Notes:

Ø  I would recommend the TV show Everest:  Beyond the Limit or the movie Touching the Void over this.

Ø  It’s just not very cinematic to watch people walk around and freeze.

Ø  I swear they reused a shot of the mountain and just added in CGI people climbing for the second go-around.

Ø  They didn’t really bother tracking the Sherpas, because who cares about the Sherpas, right?