Review of Everest (2015) by Filmphonic — 20 Sep 2015

Right off the bat ‘Everest’ is visually impressive with a mix of sound stage work and real location shooting in the Italian Alps and parts of Everest itself, the combination provides impressive and foreboding panoramas plus tense and perilous sequences.

The decision to make ‘Everest’ a faithful representation of the tragically real and relatively recent events of the 1996 expedition puts the film in a difficult position which is reflected by some of its reviews. Baltasar Kormákur is damned for not injecting more cinematic jeopardy and making this more of an action thriller, almost as much as he would have been slated for desecrating the memory of those who perished had he sexed-up the narrative to make a more “Hollywood” production.

If you’re expecting an action/adventure thriller ala Stallone’s ‘Cliffhanger’ you will be disappointed by ‘Everest’, think more along the lines of the 1993 real-life survival drama ‘Alive’ and you’ll understand the narrative tone of this film. Kormákur and the writers do a commendable job of painting a realistic portrait on the reality of climbing Everest, from the weeks of acclimatization before the climb to the several camps along the way and the physical consequences of climbing at extreme altitudes.

Led by Jason Clarke, the all-star cast does a good job of fleshing out the characters and getting the audience to connect to them enough to make the tragic drama that develops all the more effective, particularly when you consider that these are real events being depicted, perhaps the performances are good enough to make us more overly sympathetic.

The Bottom Line..

Although constrained by its faithful adaptation of a real story in terms of narrative and action, ‘Everest’ is executed well enough to make it a striking and potent thriller and a different kind of disaster drama, a refreshingly realistic view of the most unattainable of human endeavours.