On Top of the World

Rating: 7/10 (27 September 2015)

With perhaps one of the best ensemble casts of the year, Everest is a solid disaster flick. The story of anyone climbing Mt. Everest is absurd to me, but this group had a particularly devastating adventure. Everest tells the story of a group of explorers in the mid 90's taking on the dangers of climbing the tallest mountain in the world before a deadly storm made them alter their plans mid trip. Led by the strong performances of Jason Clarke, Jake, Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Sam Worthington, and Keira Knightley, Everest is one of the most impressive looking and acted films all year.
The film starts out slow and I think for awhile didn't really know how to structure the story. With such a big cast and a ton to focus on, the film just doesn't flow for a good hour. In fact, it wasn't really clear who was in what expedition group for awhile, no thanks to them being covered with snow and snow gear for a good portion of the film. I think that's just the nature of this story though, no pun intended. I also thought it was interesting that we only really got back-stories for a few of them, and only two with family members show. But the scene in which each of them describe why they are going on this trip was where the film started to have the emotional edge that I had hoped initially. But you go to see a movie like this for the final 40 minutes or so. The ending picked up for the lackluster first hour or so and it turns out to be a solid film.
Knightley and Clarke have great chemistry without really being on the screen together at all, along with Brolin and Robin Wright having a few memorable scenes together. Clarke is becoming one of the most underrated actors working today. The entire cast is magnificent though. Everyone sells everything they are doing incredibly well. The visuals are also very good for a 50 million dollar budget. If you forget about the weak first half of the movie than we may have had an Oscar contender on our hands.
+Clarke's incredible performance
+Visuals
+Emotional pull
-Weak and slow start
7.7/10