You know that snooty, fake, half-pouty smile an airline employee gives you right before they tell you the bad news?
Ben and Alex are both trying to get home – he’s got an important surgery to perform in the morning, and she’s got a wedding to attend (her own). The snow says no. The goddamn airline employees deploy their sorry-not-sorry smiles. So Ben and Alex, strangers in an airport, devise their own workaround: they’ll hire a small plane to get ahead of the storm and deliver them to their destination. But as you can probably guess, this was not the cleverest of plans. Their plane goes down, and thanks to some handy plot devices, no one even knows where they are. Help isn’t coming. They can either stay where they are and starve\freeze to death, or they make the mountain their bitch.
I read and enjoyed the book and then I watched the movie and didn’t quite know what to make of it. This is a story of survival. Of two strangers becoming dependent on each other, knowing they will most likely die and having to make really tough decisions together. Kate Winslet is good and Idris Elba is good but together they have the chemistry of two half-wilted house plants. The movie takes an against-all-odds story and turns it into romantic schmaltz, but these two characters (and these two actors) don’t pull it off – and it’s an insult to humanity anyway. I mean, yes, IF I have to get into a horrific plane crash where my injuries make it difficult to escape but do not in any way mar my perfect looks, I HOPE it’s with Idris Elba and I HOPE we fall in love despite the fact that I have a perfectly good husband at home and I obviously haven’t shaved my legs in days or weeks or months or whatever. I’m just saying it’s not exactly probable.
The film isn’t a complete waste of time because it is Kate and Idris and even when they’re at their worst they aren’t half bad. And there’s a lot of frozen Canadian landscapes to keep your eyes busy and your mind hopefully engaged elsewhere, because if you stop to think about this plot for even a second, it all turns to mush.
Haha: I hope you will get your wish one day, one never knows (but I do hope you get it without getting injured lol).
This film I was pretty hesitant at to watch in the theatres. The trailer looked okayish, but I always love survival stories. In the end I skipped it, and it looks like I made the right choice. That said I still want to see it at some point, so I will wait for it to make an appearance on dvd and watch it than. As usual great review! 😀
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As an asshole, who also loves watching movies, have you seen In God’s Own Country.
I think NOW magazine summed it up best, when it say, it can be ugly, but so can love. 🙂 Harlon
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So, is there a sex scene in this film? I just want to see Kate and Idris get it on.
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I bet the dog died too.
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Since I have not heard about that movie, or book, you had me wondering for the majority of the most what it was. A short story? A true report of your travels? It was pretty funny.
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I enjoyed this movie. Then again, I might have been blinded by having Idris Elba on the screen. Which, let’s be honest, might be the only reason I went.
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well poop, I did want to see it – will wait until it is free on comcast!
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LT, a Tubularsock reminder ….. a free bad movie is still a bad movie! TIME IS MONEY!
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You got that right Tube!
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Oh my, Tubularsock has NEVER shaved his legs, for what that is worth.
Tubularsock hates flying and figures that crashing would be worse by only using my power of deduction.
To watch others waller around in the snow to find connection is not one of Tubularsock’s favorite areas of interest.
Thank you so much for your reviews, Jay. This year alone you have saved Tubularsock over $1800.00!
Sure, checks in the mail, Jay.
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That is a flimsy setup. I’m terrible at survival movies anyway, so I’ll give this a pass.
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Eh. This just doesn’t sound very good.
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They could have used the Striker Eureka on that mountain…..
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From the moment I watched the trailer I had mixed feelings about this movie. It looked like it had the potential to be good, but didn’t look like it pulled it off. I love the 2 actors myself and it was what called my attention to the movie in the first place. But it seemed eh. Maybe I’ll just read the book; it’s always better, right?!
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