★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Here’s an intense but crowded disaster epic from director
Baltasar Kormákur, detailing an ill-fated expedition to the peak of Mount
Everest in 1996. Jason Clarke stars as Rob Hall, the head of a massive tourist
pack heading up the slopes. Among his entourage is Josh Brolin as Texan
adventurer Beck Weathers, Jake Gyllenhaal as mountaineer Scott Fisher and Emily
Watson as base camp leader Helen Wilton.
While it’s no surprise that Jason Clarke is excellent, the
real stand-out performances come from Watson and Brolin, particularly incredible
for the former considering she’s tied to a phone for a sizeable chunk of
screen-time (as is Keria Knightley as Rob’s wife Jan). Brolin has never been
much of a selling point for me, but here he’s a wonder to watch as Beck’s go-gettin’
attitude is slowly and cruelly worn away by the ascent.
As one might expect with a true-to-life story, a reverential
tone is maintained throughout, particularly by Dario Marianelli’s unfurling
score and a script that doesn’t waste time trying to glamourize the climbers as
heroes or stigmatize anyone for what may or may not have gone wrong. The
mountain itself is also given due respect: a recurring shot with the cast
shunted to the side of the frame as Everest looms all around – just itching for
them to put a foot wrong – illustrates the famous peak as a character in
itself.
Blacing the many characters and respective tangents was
always going to be difficult, and sadly Everest
makes a bad job of it: Gyllenhaal’s Scott Fisher is sporadically returned to
every once in a while almost as an afterthought, which feels ill-befitting not
only of his talent as an actor, but also disrespectful of his real-life
counterpart. Constantly switching perspectives adds a lot of un-necessary
running time too, but at the same time other parts of the story feel
underdeveloped. Elements of the real-life tale that are still under speculation
to this day are handled mostly through hasty cutaways to other events or by
having characters simply drop from the frame…sometimes literally!
The marketing attempts to sell this as a snowbound Gravity (even the tagline ‘Never let go’ is but a
word shy of the subtitle adorning posters for Cuarón’s space stunner), but the
final effort often loses focus, despite being no less terrifying and beautiful
in its own regard. I respect and admire Everest
as a thrilling and thoughtful retelling of extraordinary events, but unlike its
many characters, Kormákur falls short of the summit.
