Everest (12A)
Everest, the story of the 1996 Mount Everest climbing disaster in which eight people died, is the week’s main movie release. Directed by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur it focuses on the lead up to a summit attempt – over a period of a month – by two groups, the introduction and partial development of the main characters and the events that followed the climb when members of both units were caught in a vicious blizzard as they tried to ascend.
In a way the movie Everest suffers from the same problem as the climb – in all, nineteen different groups tried to make it to the summit on a single day (10th May) and when things started to go wrong there were too many people on the mountain at the same time. In the film, the dramatic focus is spread too wide and too thinly and none of the characters is either novel enough, or substantial enough, to hold our interest.
We get contrasting guides (Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke), waiting wives (Keira Knightly and Robin Wright), base camp organisers (Emily Watson and Elizabeth Devicki), and a handful of climbers with familiar stories to tell.
Ultimately the most striking thing about Everest is the mountain locations captured in a series of sweeping overhead shots and the actions sequences in the second half as the climbers try to get down before the weather devours them.
I’m delighted to say that one of our guests on The Picture Show on Saturday evening will be William Nicholson who wrote Everest. His other credits include Gladiator, Mandela : Long Walk To Freedom, Unbroken, Les Misérables, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, First Knight and the stage and screen versions of Shadowland. Tune in from 6pm, or listen back to the podcast here.
A Walk in the Woods (15A)
Also out this week is A Walk in the Woods, a likeable journey comedy about writer Bill Bryson’s attempt to walk the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in the company of an alcoholic friend. Bryson had been living in the UK for best part of two decades and A Walk in the Woods was an attempt to re-acquaint himself with his own country when his family decided to go home.
Robert Redford had bought the film rights to the book in 2005 as a vehicle for himself and his long-time friend and co-star Paul Newman, but Newman retired from acting and died in 2008 before they could get it made. Redford later cast Nick Nolte in a supporting role in his film The Company You Keep and he was so impressed he decided to offer Nolte, going through a late career renaissance, the role of Bryson’s companion in the film Steve Katz.
A Walk in the Woods is ‘an odd couple take to the road’ type story in which Bryson and Katz talk and haggle about their lives and the decisions they have made and are joined along the way by an assortment of colourful fellow hikers.
It is a traditionally constructed narrative with few surprises, but it is enjoyable and it won’t disappoint the many Bryson book lovers. You can listen to my interview with the American writer from last week's The Picture Show at the bottom of this post.
