Snow Job

Rating: 3/10 (3 October 2015)

Having read John Krakauer's account of the doomed Everest climb in his book "Into Thin Air" I was anticipating a much more dramatic film with a gripping script. The wonderful ensemble of actors didn't have much to work with. The film is monotone with no edge-of-seat moments -- given the life-or-death extreme setting. And not much of a dramatic soundtrack either. The film has no cadence at all and just comes off as a flat docudrama. The only highly emotional moment is when a dying Rob Hall makes a final call to his wife in New Zealand.
I am especially disappointed that a compelling part of Krakauer's narrative is almost completely left out. If there is one pivotal anti-hero in this story it is the NY socialite Sandy Pittman Hill. She's accused of causing many of the crucial delays to the other clients' ascent. Without these delays the climbers likely would have likely gotten back to base camp before the storm came. The film shows one of these critical delays in the absence of rope lines being fixed to the summit. But the film never bothers to explain why this happened. In reality Pittman's distraction of the Sherpa responsible for installing rope lines is to blame – at least according to Krakauer.
This would have made for high drama, but the filmmakers inexplicably show her character in just a few brief shots. One wonders if they were threatened with a libel suit by Pittman, or simply co-opted by her when, I assume, they interviewed her for background.
The blend of special effect and cinematography is excellent, and it's not to be missed in 3D. But the story suffers from lack of oxygen.