Powerful and arresting

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2020)

A stunning, moving dramatization of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, drawn from the accounts of several survivors. This incident actually involves author Jon Krakauer, who documented his own experience in the '97 page-turner Into Thin Air, though some disputes have been raised against his work and it's not cited as a reference for the film. As one might expect, there's no shortage of breathtaking scenery and bowel-shaking peeks down into the gaping abyss, and those are clearly a high priority for the production. They're a grand mix of CGI and on-location footage, real IMAX-quality eye candy that should scratch a giant itch for lovers of the outdoors or fans of air-sucking Earth porn. The film's dramatic turns, surprisingly enough, are just as effective. Though it's overloaded with big names, from Josh Brolin and Jake Gyllenhaal to Keira Knightly and Robin Wright, each effectively fades into a more pedestrian role and none, save a few appropriately loud-mouthed scenes from Brolin, threaten to take the production over. Though the passage of time is occasionally a bit underplayed, especially as the climbers acclimate to altitude, it works very well as both a pulse-pounder and a gut-punch. Powerful and arresting, it reaches brazenly for the heavens without losing track of its human origins, which is far easier said than done.