Top of the world, Ma!

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2015)

Docudrama climbs new heights - in fact, to the summit of the world's highest mountain - in this adrenaline-intensive re-creation of the tragic climbing season of May 1996 when eight people died in a two-day blizzard on Everest. Although there are big-name stars here (Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley), no one is allowed to grandstand: what counts is the ascent. The script gives us glimpses of the climbers' everyday lives - the wives holding their breath at home - and the support team at the various Camps; and, never forget, the Sherpas. But the movie's biggest star is the mountain - and, it must be said, the cameramen who surely took serious risks to obtain the footage.
The CGI people have seamlessly joined scenes shot in the Italian Alps to the Everest shoot. You totally feel (especially if you see it in 3D and IMAX) that you are up there with these people crawling across bottomless crevasses and dizzying slopes. You also get a sense of what drives these mountaineers, a force somewhere between bravery and foolhardiness, to take on one of the greatest challenges our planet has to offer.