Review of Everest (2015) by Manny C — 02 Oct 2015

Everest is a film that does just about everything except scale the actual mountain itself. Don't even think about seeing Everest in anything other than 3-D IMAX, it's that much of a dizzying, dazzling visual adventure that may leave you gasping. Working from a script from survival experts William Nicholson (Unbroken) and Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours), Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur (2 Guns) takes care to hew closely to the stark reality of a May 1996 expedition in which eight climbers lost their lives.

It takes an expert cast, clad in beards and parkas, to provide the emotional drama and lifelines. Jake Gyllenhaal excels best as American Scott Fischer, as well as Jason Clarke as Aussie Rob Hall, both leading their own groups up the mountain. They are joined by Russian guide Anatoli Bourkreev (Ingvar Sigurdsson) and a host of amateurs. Those include Texan Beck Weathers (John Hawkes) and Japanese climber Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori), the only woman on the trip. Everest is the final summit she has to conquer.

Cutaways introduce us to the pregnant wife (Keira Knightley) Hall left back home, as well as glimpses of Weathers' domestic issues with his own spouse (Robin Wright). All praise to Emily Watson as base-camp coordinator Helen Wilton, who skillfully conveys conpassion that never seeps into cheap sentiment. Unfortunately the film is stacked with far too many characters, including Michael Kelly as author Jon Krakauer, whose landmark book about the trip, Into Thin Air, fills in dramatic gaps the film doesn't get across.

But the real star of the film is the one and only Mt. Everest. Kormakur couldn't shoot on locations higher than base camp, about 14,000 feet without endangering actors and crew, so much of the film was shot in the Dolomites, but it matters not: Everest will make a believer out of you.