George G

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️ This film is probably meant more for the artistic and serious film critic crowd who like Oscar films etc. and I want to start by saying Jodie Comer is a very talented actress and her acting in this is still great. However a few things about this film bug me, and the character decisions are so stupid it genuinely annoys me. Let’s start with both the Husband and his father who are completely useless during the whole ordeal. The husband just spends his time feeling sorry for himself and crying with nothing about himself that screams “I will do anything to save my wife and child” he effectively acts as a second child for the main character. The grandfather isn’t much better (Mark strong) who’s wife dies on a trip to get food and he decides that instead of staying around to make sure his son and grandson are okay, decides to shoot himself. This starts off a series of stupid decisions, why don’t they pick up the weapon that the grandad used to shoot himself with - it would come in handy as we are dealing with looters and the collapse of society. Why don’t they ever gather or hunt for food? Nettles and rabbits aren’t the tastiest in the world but they are better than starving. The main character also spends the majority of the film making it to somewhere with food and comfort for her child, and when she gets there then complains about losing her useless husband and so makes the same people that took her in drop her back to the post apocalyptic mainland. I personally think this is very much represents an issue with society today - that people are never happy with what they have and have no accountability for their own actions (they expect everyone else to worry about feeding and getting them to places). I understand not everyone is Ray Mears but the lack of survival instinct, self preservation and self awareness in these films is always staggering.

I stumbled upon this unknown film on amazon prime and thought I would give it a go. Turns out it was a pleasant surprise, and ultimately fairly uplifting movie about attempting to survive both the challenging environment of the snow covered American mountains whilst coming to terms with ones past. Easiest way to describe this film is a cross between the mountain between us, cast away and lone survivor all in one.