3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity
By Derrick Bang
Human grit and determination know
no bounds, even to the point of neglecting experienced judgment and common
sense, in pursuit of ... what, precisely? Bragging rights?
Seems a pretty thin return for
risking one’s life.
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| Granted clear skies and ideal climbing conditions, the members of two teams — from left, Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), Jon Krakauer (Michael Kelly) and Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) — begin their final assault on Everest's summit. Alas, conditions won't remain mild for long... |
Icelandic director Baltasar
Kormákur’s Everest persuasively
conveys the jovial, devil-may-care resolve and physical grit that characterize
those bent on conquering Earth’s highest and most dangerous summit. The
international cast is convincing, particularly while depicting the 24/7
adrenaline rush that fuels such folks during the weeks of preparation leading
up to an ascent.
But this isn’t action-oriented
melodrama, in the mold of (for example) Sylvester Stallone’s laughably improbable
Cliffhanger. Scripters William
Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy have based this film’s narrative on the ill-fated
1996 Everest expeditions that turned tragic with the arrival of a particularly
nasty blizzard. Allowing for modest artistic license — and with Nicholson and
Beaufoy doing their best to adapt sometimes conflicting accounts from the five
(!) books written between 1997 and 2014 — the resulting story feels both
authentic and even-handed.
But if some of this film looks familiar,
there’s good reason: We’ve been here before. The 1998 IMAX documentary of the
same title, the giant-screen format’s biggest hit to date, devoted a chunk of
its 45-minute running time to this catastrophe; indeed, Kormákur’s new film
references the presence of the IMAX production team.
More recently, documentarian
David Breashears’ Storm Over Everest
focused exclusively on this 1996 climb.
But even the most successful
documentaries never achieve the mainstream penetration of a big-budget,
Hollywood-type production, and there’s no denying that these events cried for
just such treatment. Kormákur’s heartfelt drama likely will be the final word
on this subject, and it’s a worthy historical document.
More than once, in fact, I was
reminded of British director Charles Frend’s superlative 1948 drama, Scott of the Antarctic, with John Mills
starring as the British explorer whose team tried to become the first to reach
the South Pole. Kormákur’s new film is in worthy company.
After opening with a brief (and
wholly unnecessary) flash-forward to grimmer moments, we backtrack to the
preparation phase, as our primary characters are introduced.
Thanks in great part to New
Zealand mountaineer-turned-expedition-guide Rob Hall, by 1996 climbing Everest
has become a thrill-seeker’s sport du jour (attracting the same sort of
risk-takers who’ve purchased tickets for Richard Branson’s proposed Virgin
Galactic space voyages). Hall’s Adventure Consultants company, incorporated in
1992, led to a minor wave of imitators, notably the Seattle-based Mountain
Madness, a rival firm headed by famed mountaineer Scott Fischer.
In this case, however, commercialized
imitation isn’t merely the sincerest form of flattery; it’s dangerous on two
levels. The multiplicity of expeditions has encouraged the participation of
clients unprepared for what lies ahead; it also leads to an unsettling “traffic
jam” once the various expeditions get started. There are only so many ways to
climb Everest, and the doomed May 10-11 ascent by Adventure Consultants and
Mountain Madness collectively included six guides, 16 clients and 15 sherpas.
A Taiwanese team led by “Makalu”
Gau Ming-Ho put another 13 people on the mountain at the same time.
Kormákur’s film focuses on the
Adventure Consultants group, with seasoned Aussie Jason Clarke playing
expedition leader Rob Hall. His clients include brash Texas pathologist Beck Weathers
(Josh Brolin), an experienced climber making a bid for the “Seven Summits”
challenge; Doug Hansen (John Hawkes), a mailman and adventure enthusiast trying
a second time, having failed to summit the previous year; Jon Krakauer (Michael
Kelly), a journalist and accomplished climber on assignment for Outside magazine; and Yasuko Namba
(Naoko Mori), a 90-pound, 47-year-old Japanese woman who, having completed six
of the Seven Summits, is trying for the seventh ... while simultaneously
becoming the oldest woman to summit Everest.
Hall’s team is supported by Guy
Cotter (Sam Worthington), a fellow guide; Helen Wilton (Emily Watson),
Adventure Consultants’ logistics coordinator and Base Camp manager; and
Caroline MacKenzie (Elizabeth Debicki), the Base Camp doctor who determines
whether clients can continue, or must drop out.
Ordinarily, Hall’s group also
would have been accompanied by his wife, Jan (Keira Knightley), but — pregnant
with their first child — she’s forced to remain at home. Beck gets the sole
remaining nod to family ties, with Robin Wright playing his wife, Peach, who never
really accepted her husband’s thrill-seeking fixation.
The Mountain Madness team is led
by Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal); his clients and fellow guides are present
but — for the most part — faceless and therefore inconsequential. Various other
teams and individual climbers party and squabble during the Base Camp prep
weeks, but we never get a bead on them.
Brolin is an amiable hoot as the
mildly overbearing Beck, who never misses an opportunity to flaunt Texas pride.
But the role is a bit deeper than that, and — during Beck’s quieter moments —
we sense concern, perhaps even fear, that he may be overestimating his
abilities.
Mori’s Yasuko is simply adorable,
and she easily wins the greatest share of our
hearts and minds; her fellow clients, as well, can’t help cheering her on.
Kelly radiates confidence and competence as Krakauer: a solid “good guy” role
for a busy character actor well recognized from numerous TV shows.
Hawkes, a superb actor blessed
with the ability to sketch a full character with subtle dialog and movement,
radiates vulnerability. No question that his “ordinary joe” mailman is this
expedition’s weak link, leading Hall to watch him very closely.
Clark and Gyllenhaal are engaging
opposites, and deliberately so. Clark’s Hall is all business and caution: a
careful and methodical leader who protects his people above everything else
(thus justifying his company’s $65,000 client fee). Gyllenhaal’s Fischer, in
great contrast, is a latter-day free spirit who thrusts himself into a
challenge for the sheer joy of it, and who therefore believes that Hall’s
mothering cautiousness takes all the fun out of a climb.
Knightley’s role is small, but she
makes the most of it in terms of poignant heft, particularly when Rob and Jan
playfully argue over what to name their baby. Wright, in turn, shows plenty of
snap during an even briefer part.
Watson’s Helen becomes our
surrogate emotional barometer, her increasingly agitated behavior lending
weight to the sense of danger. We can see, on the mountain face, as things
become grim; but when Helen starts to panic — given how well Watson has imbued
her character with intelligence and experience — then we know things are really, really bad.
That said, Kormákur has an
irritating habit of demanding tight-tight-tight
close-ups from cinematographer Salvatore Totino. It becomes quite distracting,
particularly on an IMAX screen, when the camera repeatedly zooms in so close
that we see only portions of somebody’s face. This is a lazy TV soap opera
trick, intended to enhance the gravity of a given moment ... and it’s wholly
unnecessary here.
The situation is grave; we don’t need that sort of
hammer-handed emphasis.
One other directorial touch also
is off-putting. Although the location cinematography and most of the mountain
and climbing footage look real, occasional tighter shots with the actors betray
their soundstage origins. The film stock is too bright; the snowy background
looks artificial. While I acknowledge the impossibility of placing expensive
talent on the actual face of Everest, this sort of “cheating” should have been
done more carefully.
On a wholly insignificant note,
and likely only for the benefit of folks who remember the 1998 IMAX film,
Kormákur and Totino stage one scene — crossing a deep fissure on a horizontal
aluminum ladder, as the camera looks straight down (and up) between the rungs —
to duplicate that earlier documentary’s identical moment ... albeit with a
different dramatic outcome.
Dario Marianelli’s excellent
score deftly shadows the action, with a somber undercurrent — initially almost
imperceptible — gradually rising, as the story continues, and eventually
enhancing the escalating tragedy.
Kormákur’s film is suspenseful
and heartbreaking, the outcome still shocking all these years later, even for
those who read Krakauer’s best-selling Into
Thin Air. Perhaps more than anything else, we’re reminded that Nature cares
little for human hubris; climbing Everest would be harrowing under the best of
conditions, so it seems unfair that such valiant adventurers should suddenly
have to contend with a raging blizzard.
Not that these events stopped, or
even slowed, subsequent annual Everest expeditions.
They’re all crazy.
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