TIFF Review: The Mountain Between Us

A photojournalist and neurosurgeon are stranded on a mountain after their small charter plane crashes.

Flight delays because of an impending storm causes photojournalist Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) and neurosurgeon Ben Bass (Idris Elba) to rent a small charter plane piloted by war veteran (Beau Bridges) who subsequently has a heart attack during the flight.   The aircraft crashes killing the pilot but his dog survives along with Martin and Bass.  The threesome need to depend on each other in order to endure threatening natural elements and menacing wildlife.

The story is nowhere near the calibre of the acting talent of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba who do little to rise above what is in essence a Harlequin romance with a survival setting.  Spoiler warning.  The heart of the problem is a line that Ben Bass says near the end of the movie: ‘I thought we survived because we fell in love.’  Seriously!?  The last shot is cringeworthy as it oozes with melodrama.  Not even the great cinematography and production value can save what was a disaster before taking flight.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.