Larry H Movie Reviews | The Mountain Between Us

The Mountain Between Us

Released: October 6, 2017

This is a pretty movie; the shots of the Rocky Mountains are the constant backdrop for our two heroes who must survive after their small plane on the way to Denver crashes somewhere on a snow-covered peak; nobody knows where the plane went down. The only other person on the plane was the pilot (Beau Bridges) and he failed to file a flight plan. Darn the luck.

Beau’s character didn’t make it, but he died with grace and that goofy Bridges’ smile. So, now Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba) and Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) must suck it up and figure out how to get down the mountain. Or do they just stay with the plane and hope to be found. They only have a small amount of supplies and a “few cookies.”

Elba is a troubled neurosurgeon and Winslet is a professional photographer. Fate has thrown them together; they were not buds prior to the crash so Israeli Director Hany Abu-Assad must build the characters while telling this tragic story of survival without boring the audience who has seen many movies very close to this plot.

What’s different about this Mountain? Elba and Winslet. They are super-talented based on their body of work and they appeared to take their roles seriously as surely they knew that this was a unique opportunity to shine when it was snowing because the camera was on one or the other or both for almost two hours.

We all know Winslet has won an Oscar for her performance as Rose in “Titanic” in 1997 when she was only 22 years old. Wrong Academy Award Breath, she was nominated, but she won her only Oscar as Hanna Schmitz in “The Reader.” (2008) Speaking of older folks, many of you will be pleased to see a conversation between Ben and Alex about the wedding scene in “The Graduate” (1967).

Idris Elba, from London age 45, not only has one of the coolest names in Hollywood, but he has become an accomplished and handsome leading man with a golden silky voice. In this movie, the race card is not played even though the main characters are an intelligent black man and a skilled white woman. What does that mean? I don’t know.

This movie has had mild success, but you’ll see it sometime; might be on Showtime on a Friday night, but these two actors are worthy of the price of a ticket and absolutely can carry a movie if the director will get out of the way and let them perform. This is not an inventive screenplay, but the chemistry between Elba and Winslet is explosive and memorable. Rock ‘n Roll.

Grade 88. Larry H. sugarlaw@larryharrison.com