An adaptation of Charles Martin’s best-selling novel, this is the story of two gutsy fortysomethings thrown together by a storm and a plane crash in the Utah mountains. American Alex (Kate Winslet) is an about-to-be-married photographer just back from snapping neo-Nazis for The Guardian. British Ben (Idris Elba) is a brain surgeon who will stop at nothing to save the life of a 10-year-old boy. Within hours of meeting the pair acquire a cute mutt.
So will Alex and Ben fall like ninepins when confronted by hunger/injury/cougars/treacherous ice? Will they have a threesome with the dog? If you think the answer to either of those questions is yes, you must be new to these parts.
Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad is best known for controversial Golden-Globe-winner Paradise Now (2005), a portrait of two articulate, sensitive suicide bombers. In 2012 he made a straight-to-video action flick with Mickey Rourke (as an Elvis Impersonator called Evil Sivle). Suffice to say Abu-Assad is still feeling his way on the international scene. He does his best though, and while the film gets stuck between a rock and a hard place it’s reasonably enjoyable. Gazing at the spectacular landscapes (shot with verve by cinematographer Mandy Walker) it dawns on you that cheekbones are really just face mountains. Winslet and Elba offer great peaks. Yet, impressively, they never seem remote. For most of the movie Winslet (famous for including a “no retouching” clause in her modelling contracts) looks gorgeously plain and no-nonsense. Meanwhile Elba uses his own London accent.
The whole team are at their most focused during the grungy sex scenes. Alex and Ben resemble victims of constipation finally able to empty their bowels. Fans of the intimate, non-linear love-making in Don’t Look Now and Out of Sight will appreciate the naturalistic vibe.
The Mountain Between Us, in pictures
There’s also a nice running gag about a boiled sweet (which, early on, Alex rapturously sniffs and licks). You can tell co-writer Chris Weitz (who scripted Disney’s live-action Cinderella) is capable of making funny jokes. Alas, he loses the plot in the soulless third act, which involves the most hilarious bit of hobbling you’ll see all year.
Abu-Assad’s romance is a chick-flick sandwich, worth sampling only for the stuff in the middle. The last 30 minutes are gruelling. I’m a survivor. But only just.
Cert 12A, 112 mins
