This is a DRAMA movie not an ACTION movie, people!

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2016)

A lot of the reviewers here who have voted low on this movie were expecting an ACTION movie. Well, sorry folks. Go and watch some trashy JJ Abrams or Michael Bay rubbish if you want that. This movie is actually a DRAMA. Why is it a drama? Because it is based on TRUE EVENTS. And that is where it leaves ACTION and gets into DOCUMENTARY. And this is where this movie SUCCEEDS.
It does not go all "Hollywood" on the script and add in "action" scenes to appease the popcorn eating morons that can't comprehend anything more than flashing lights, bangs and sirens. It does not even have a "good guy" and a "bad guy." It has to be ACCURATE otherwise it can only claim to be "based on true events" instead of being "a true story." So shut up idiots who said this movie was "boring" or "had no action" etc etc etc. YOU people are boring and your attention spans are that of children.
Having said that, the movie is well made. There are big names in it. The only thing that annoyed me slightly is that lead character is played by an Australian and makes absolutely ZERO effort at sounding like a New Zealander which he is supposed to be. It makes me wonder if that was intentional. Imagine this: some "true-blue" New Zealander in the main role would lose most of the audience with his unintelligible accent, due to their horrendous treatment of vowels, "the ear is thoon ... and the weether is bed." (This is the very reason New Zealanders can't be understood by the rest of the English-speaking world.) SO, I get it. At least Australian vowels are more in keeping with the rest of the world. On the other hand Keira Knightly and Emily Watson's New Zealand accents were almost dead on - as busted as that accent is. Good effort, ladies. I cringed in all the right places.
The story was well executed. The ending was quite touching. Knowing that this is an unembellished telling of true events it makes it even more emotional.
My hat goes off to this great mountaineer and New Zealander (sorry, won't fall into that kitschy, cutesy thing of calling a New Zealander a "Kiwi.")