Human beings are never meant to survive at a 747.
A handful of climbers (played by Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Sam Worthington, Jake Gyllenhaal, etc.) travel to Mt. Everest to climb, well, Mt. Everest. Can they handle the peril, the danger, and the chance of death?
Visually, Everest is top-rate impressive. The mountain cinematography throughout the film is gorgeous. Kudos to cinematographer Salvatore Totino for making swooping camera shots and landscape shots make the experience feel more real. Whether it was real, simulated, or green screen, the danger scenes are all impressively realistic and chilling.
While there's not much character development, the ensemble cast all does a great job at making you care about their characters. Clarke makes a very solid lead, and is particularly convincing towards the end of the film. Brolin, Hawkes, Worthington and (a nearly-unrecognizable and goofy) Gyllenhaal are all given plenty of time onscreen to work. The two leading females are also given some solid screentime, as Emily Watson and Keira Knightley are both emotionally-sincere and convincing.
There isn't a lot of music, but Dario Marianelli's score does the job well emotionally.
I also want to give the film points for having a fairly clean script. Families with preteens on up looking for something with no innuendo and language are in luck here. Everest's content issues are very minimal in almost all departments. Its almost rare today to find a movie today that is well-done production wise that is just about devoid of anything real salacious.
On the downside, while Everest stays true to its true story basis, the overall feel of the film, is simply, melancholy. There isn't a lot of light-hearted moments, or real cheer-worthy moments (save for a solid moment where one climber is motivated by his family to keep chugging through). But (and I warn families about this also), there isn't a happy ending.
I am surprised that through today, they hadn't done a movie about Mt. Everest (at least one that I'm familiar with). But, I'm excited to get to see how it ended up. This Hollywood version really is a raw and chilling tale of man vs. nature. Its well-made on a production scale, filled with great cinematography and terrific acting (the cinematography definitely is deserving of an Oscar nomination).
However, despite all these good points, coming out of the theater, I felt that this was one of the most difficult films I've watched to date. The film is very sad towards the end, and there's little to no light-hearted, inspiring or happy moments to save it. Thus, a lack of any real humor as well as a too-serious and melancholy tone nearly drags Everest down, and makes it a tricky film for me to grade.
That being said, its a visually-enrapturing experience. If only it was more enjoyable.
Score: 6.7/10
Content Problems Families Should Be Aware Of:
Language: One possible use of "h---" (the accents make it hard to tell). "Oh g--" is mumbled a couple of times.
Adult Content: One kiss between a married couple.
Violence: Several scenes of intense peril. Climbers fall and are injured. In a couple of situations, a couple of other climbers fall off the mountain and disappear. Characters succumb to the intense cold, and we see snow and ice freeze over them. One noble climber tries to move, but he too can't keep up. We see a climber's hands and nose black with frostbite. The heights cause a couple of people to vomit blood (briefly). A snowstorm makes things even bleaker. One or two avalanches. Someone nearly falls off of a ladder.
Drugs/Alcohol: Towards the beginning, we see a few scenes where adults drink beer and liquor, and we see many empty bottles. Red cups are also seen. A few characters are obviously inebriated in a few scenes. A drug is injected to adjust to acclimation.
Other: A Buddhist/Hindu temple makes a couple of appearances.
