Review of A Lonely Place to Die (2011) by Robert H — 29 Feb 2012

A group of climbers come across a box, buried in the ground, containing a living little girl, who speaks no English and appears to have been kidnapped. They try to rescue her.

A Lonely Place to Die is fast-paced, tense thriller. On some levels, you sort of guess the template (a large group of characters = enough room to pick them off, one by one), but unlike most such movies, the characters here are authentic, largely likeable and all human. They are intelligent people, making good decisions with good reasoning. It makes it all the more painful when the violence starts.

And this is a violent film. There is very little cheerfulness or happiness here, but lots of tension. There are a small number of moments when the scriptwriter proves that he/she has no idea about first aid (and neither do I - but I seem to know more than the film makers, which is troubling), and when internal logic seems to briefly stop making sense (why does character X, split from the others, suddenly return to the group and rejoin them - and how?), and the finale really struggles overcoming the suspension of disbelief while straying into cliche (a small Scottish village in the middle of nowhere, having a massive pagan festival with nude tribal dancing, half hour fireworks, parades, etc.?) , but despite those flaws, I would heartily recommend this film to anyone looking for a hard, gritty, engrossing thriller.