By Brett Blake EVEREST is a film that impresses on several levels… and yet still somehow underwhelms a bit. There are many good elements contained within the movie, and there are some striking moments, but the overall impression it left with me was one of “That’s it?” And that is not to somehow slight or downplay the true story behind the film, which is a story filled with tragedy and heroism, but as a film, EVEREST feels curiously low-key. Telling the true story of a notorious 1996 Everest expedition that ended less than successfully, EVEREST follows several teams of climbers as they attempt to summit the fabled mountain. Due to miscommunication, lack of cooperation between the teams, and a hellish storm, the teams find themselves trapped on the mountain in the most dangerous conditions imaginable and with little hope of making it back down alive. If you don't already know the particulars of the real event, keep it that way before watching the film. Certainly, there are elements of stunning spectacle to be found in the movie, with cinematography that is beautiful (the photography of the titular mountain and its environs is often jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring) and effects work that is totally seamless. There are moments during the third act that are properly harrowing and tense, and you never once question how the filmmakers pulled this stuff off; you simply accept that these characters are in this precarious situation. The expansive cast roster is incredibly impressive, and it’s a true ensemble in the sense that the focus is on many characters, each with their own little story going on. Some of the actors are better served by the screenplay than others (Jake Gyllenhaal suffers the most in a role so inessential and inconsequential one wonders why Gyllenhaal’s even in the movie at all), but the likes of Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, and Emily Watson all get moments to really shine. Clarke, particularly, is the heart of the movie, and he delivers a performance that is wonderfully warm and humane The pacing of the movie is curiously easy-going for what should be a dramatization of a terrifyingly tense real event, and that can be traced back the script level, which (admirably) goes to great pains to set everything up in the first half of the story, but a side effect of this is that the first half almost entirely lacks incident. This is not ameliorated by the direction of Baltasar Kormakur, which is no-nonsense almost to a fault; there’s a lack of “oomph” to the proceedings that kind of undercuts the stakes a bit (several big moments - including major character deaths! - are severely underplayed). That’s not to say the direction is bad, or inert, but it’s just slightly too matter-of-fact or dispassionate. Dario Marianelli’s score does its damndest to add a sense of sweeping scope, and it gives a nice boost to the movie’s most dramatic moments. Restraint is usually not a bad thing (especially in a tale such as this one, which could so easily tip over in histrionics or melodrama), but an extra jolt of energy would really have been welcome to bring everything home. As it stands, EVEREST is a handsome production with fine performances and an incredible setting, and that’s enough to warrant a watch, in this writer’s opinion.
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