New to Home Theaters: Elba, Winslet survival film fails with critics
Joining the long list of wilderness and winter-themed survival movies is the drama “The Mountain Between Us.”
Hany Abu-Assad, the man behind “Paradise Now” and “Rana’s Wedding,” brings the adventure and love story to the screen with the help of Charles Martin, who wrote the romance film of the same name.
Ben Bass (Idris Elba, “The Wire” and “Thor”) and Alex Martin (Kate Winslet, “Titanic” and “Revolutionary Road”) find themselves stranded after their place crashes on a remote, snowy mountain.
Hundreds of miles of snow and danger leave them exposed to the elements as they set off on their own rescue operation. The two learn more about themselves, and one another, as they’re put to the ultimate test. They also encounter Walter (Beau Bridges, “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and “The Descendants”) and Mark (Dermot Mulroney, “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “August: Osage County”) along the way.
“The Mountain Between Us” received only a 41 percent and 51 percent fresh rating from critics and audiences, respectively, from the media review website, RottenTomatoes.com, while members of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) gave it 6.3 out of 10 stars.
Katie Walsh noted in a movie review for the Chicago Tribune that the marketing and premise of the film took it to a difference place than it may have been intended.
“But as the film progresses, it becomes clear that the romantic fantasy tendencies hijack this otherwise interesting unconventional love story in order to become a sort of bizarre Idris Elba fan fiction,” Walsh wrote.
She ultimately gave the film only two stars, noting that it “falls flat, struggling to truly enthrall beyond a basic love story.”
“The film shies away from many of the harsh realities to focus on their interpersonal connection, and perhaps that’s what makes the stakes fade away and the authenticity seem an afterthought,” she continued.
Megan Garber went as far as describing it as a “Hallmark holiday movie that happens to begin with a plane crash” in her review for The Atlantic as she critiqued the film’s ending.
“The ending that reveals the paltriness of this film’s ambitions, and that reminds you how sorely these two exceptional actors, over those 103 minutes of screen time, have been wasted–an ending that assumes that you, as a viewer, are denser and dumber than you are,” she wrote.
The film is rated PG-13 for a scene of sexuality, peril, injury images and brief strong language.
Other films that arrived on Blu-ray and DVD this week include:
n “Brawl in Cell Block 99” starring Jennifer Carpenter, Vince Vaughn and Marc Blucas, directed and written by S. Craig Zahler, follows a drug runner’s stint in prison.
The film is listed as not rated.
n “Flatliners” starring Ellen Page, Diego Luna and Nina Dobrev, directed by Niels Arden Oplev, is about a group of students finding out what’s beyond the boundaries of life.
The film is rated PG-13.
n “The Recall” directed by Mauro Borrelli, starring Wesley Snipes, RJ Mitte and Jedidiah Goodacre, follows an upcoming alien invasion.
The film is rated R.