A love story about two strangers stranded in icy mountains after a plane crash.
It sounds like something that would probably be a massive failure.
But this isn’t the case at all for The Mountain Between Us.
That’s not to say, though, that it’s a huge success.
The film, directed by Hany Abu-Assad based on the 2010 Charles Martin novel of the same name, follows journalist Alex and neurosurgeon Ben as their plane crashes into remote snowy mountains in America.
The pair had hired a charter plane together as their flight to Denver had been unexpectedly cancelled.
Alex was on her way to her own wedding, while Ben was scheduled to remove a brain tumour the next morning.
Oscar-winner Kate Winslet (Titanic) plays Alex, but it’s Idris Elba (Bastille Day) as Ben who carries most of the film.
Elba is innately watchable, and brings an intriguingly awkward, closed-off sense to the character.
He is the yin to Winslet’s yang, the calm presence needed to balance her frenetic need to move about.
The scenic mountain vistas are stunning and it’s not too much of a stretch to believe they wouldn’t be found for days or weeks.
What is a stretch, however, is their health.
Alex has a significant leg injury, which Ben – being the surgeon he is – ensures is set to heal, but given the length of time they are stranded and the lack of food they have on hand they should be in much worse shape as the film goes on.
Both seem relatively unaffected by their precarious situation.
Also, they are in the company of a dog, which somehow survives with practically no food to no apparent ill effect.
There is a lot of implausibility in The Mountain Between Us.
It’s not enough to steer the film into farcical territory, but it does prevent its elevation into the land of quality cinema.
Overall, watching Winslet and Elba go to work is not the worst way to spend two hours.
The Mountain Between Us is not going to change your life, but you’re not going to wish you spent the time watching paint dry either.
It’s a happy medium.
