Vertical Limit Review
By Joe Lozito
Bad Altitude
There's an Gary Larson Far Side cartoon which shows a bunch of cowboys and horses in a pile outside a Sheriff's office in the Old West. The Sheriff is berating his deputy saying, "A posse isn't something you can just throw together". Someone should have given that advice to Director Martin Campbell (Goldeneye), whose new trouble-on-a-mountain thriller combines all manner of cliched Hollywood action elements into a meaningless whole.
The script by Robert King III (Red Corner, Cutthroat Island) can best be described as adequate. Though all the pieces are in place for a standard Hollywood blockbuster (the family in peril, the past trauma to overcome, the rag-tag team with mixed loyalties), none of it seems to mesh. The dialogue has nothing to say about anything, and even the various predicaments that the climbers find themselves in seem contrived (I don't believe that those climbing ropes can break that easily).
The plot, which takes an awful lot of exposition to get going, concerns a brother and sister who, after an almost insultingly dramatic family climbing tragedy, become estranged. They are brought together again when the sister (Robin Tunney) gets trapped in a climbing expedition up K2 (the second highest mountain after Everest) and the brother (Chris O'Donnell) must form a team to save her.
Oddly, the misfortunes that befall the cast have little to do with climbing and more to do with some ill-advised nitroglycerin that Mr. Donnell's character forces them to bring along. In fact, none of the other team members are much help to the expedition, but only succeed in providing some cliff hanging thrills.
Additionally, it never seems as though any of the actors are even very far above sea level. With the exception of some heavy breathing, Mr. O'Donnell hardly falters in his quest for his lost sister (Robin Tunney) - even at 26,000 feet. Meanwhile, Ms. Tunney has some trouble distinguishing between her expressions for concern and surprise. Only Scott Glenn, as the obligatory homage to Quint from Jaws shows some real intensity. Mr. Glenn, as Montgomery Wick, looks so weathered that he actually appears to be older than the mountain. Or maybe he just doesn't want to be recognized.
