the mountain between us movie review

The Mountain Between Us

She once survived a sinking ship in “ Titanic .” He once thrived on the mean streets of Baltimore on “The Wire.” Kate Winslet and Idris Elba should by all rights have enough dramatic weight between them to easily elevate a two-hander about strangers who must rescue themselves from a desolate snow-blanketed Utah mountain range after their charter plane crashes.

Instead, “The Mountain Between Us” is a high-altitude soap opera, woozy with overly telegraphed peril and determined to make the audience root for a couple who clearly aren’t meant for each other and played by actors who deserve a generous C-minus in chemistry. In the film’s production notes, Elba—considered dreamboat material by his many fans—notes that this is his first-ever romantic lead. His surprising awkwardness during the film’s intimate moments perhaps explains why.

What really comes between Winslet’s globetrotting photojournalist Alex and Elba’s brain surgeon Ben as fate and bad weather bring them together isn’t so much geographical but script-related. Based on a novel by Charles Martin , the screenplay is a collaboration between Chris Weitz (“ About a Boy ,” the live-action “Cinderella”) and J. Mills Goodloe (“ The Age of Adaline ,” “ Everything, Everything ”). I’ll vouch for Weitz’s skills, but in the case of Goodloe, anyone who has adapted a Nicholas Sparks ’ novel that isn’t “The Notebook” is suspect. And having seen “ The Best of Me ,” I rest my case.

Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad , the maker of two politically charged Oscar-nominated foreign films (“ Paradise Now ” and “ Omar ,” the last featuring a love story) certainly has cred. But he fails to achieve producer Peter Chernin ’s self-proclaimed vision of a romantic epic in the tradition of “Dr. Zhivago” and “ Out of Africa .” Compared to those classics, “Mountain” is more of a molehill.

Right out of the gate, I had an uneasy feeling about “The Mountain Between Us” as all flights are canceled at an Idaho airport because of an incoming blizzard. Alex, desperate to head back to New York in time for her wedding, overhears Ben complaining that he has to operate on a young boy the next morning. She proposes they share a small plane for hire. Their pilot is Beau Bridges , who emits good ol’ boy vibes as he brings his soulful-eyed golden Labrador on-board. That his Walter doesn’t bother to file a flight plan is an all-too-convenient warning sign.

Not long after takeoff, while flying over remote treacherous terrain packed with white stuff, Walter begins to slur his speech and Ben recognizes he is having a stroke. Thank goodness, I have never witnessed anyone having such an attack. But Bridges, perhaps making up for the brevity of his part, seems to have taken his cues from Ian Holm ’s Ash, the malfunctioning android in “ Alien .” The crash itself isn’t all that terrifying in these days of “ Flight ” and “ Sully .” But Walter is a goner, the dog survives and he is in better shape than Alex, who has a huge gash on her leg. Ben—oh, thank goodness, there just happens to be a doctor in the house—fixes her up as best he can before tending to his own cuts and bruises.

The medical stuff is the easy part. Cooperating with someone you just met is a bit tougher. Once Alex wakes, she reveals herself to be someone prone to taking risks and usually trusts her instincts in tight situations. With no cell phone reception and with all devices that could have alerted the occasional jet overhead unfortunately out of commission, she thinks they should abandon ship and take their chances on foot. The more conservative Ben, meanwhile, is less inclined to leave what’s left of the aircraft and would rather stay put. As she heals, the pair has a get-to-know-you period. Oddly, Ben wears a wedding ring but does not mention his wife. Alex, meanwhile, knows that if she had made it to her nuptials, she would have “rushed down the aisle like Dustin Hoffman in ‘The Graduate.’” Ben waits a beat and echoes the thoughts of many a cinephile in the theater by observing that Hoffman was trying to stop the wedding. For emphasis, he meekly utters, “Elaine!”

That is meet-cute stuff right there but the early portion of “The Mountain Between Us” suggests a variation on “When Harry Met Sally…” Namely, can a man and a woman become companions and work together for a common cause? (That cause here being survival.) I liked that there seemed to be no lovey-dovey business at this point. But then Alex looks through her camera lens and sees a metallic glint off in the distance. Off they go with their makeshift emotional therapy dog in tow and the days-long trek forces them to cuddle against the cold at night. And, all too soon, the movie takes a tumble from which it never recovers.

I should have known when Ben early on portentously utters, “A heart is nothing but a muscle” that this movie, just like the plane, was destined to crash. Not to spoil the ending, which is corny as a crate of Cracker Jack, but It seemed almost inevitable that Alex’s perfectly nice yet bland fiancé would be Dermot Mulroney . For him, such roles are like Morgan Freeman playing the president or God. Meanwhile, weep not for our stars. Winslet’s career overcame the laborious “ Labor Day ” and Elba isn’t going to let the deadly “ The Dark Tower ” get him down. Besides, once you realize that “The Mountain Between Us” almost falls into the so-bad-it’s-good category, it just might become destined for riff-worthy cultdom.

Susan Wloszczyna

Susan Wloszczyna spent much of her nearly thirty years at USA TODAY as a senior entertainment reporter. Now unchained from the grind of daily journalism, she is ready to view the world of movies with fresh eyes.

Adam Lolacher as Joel
Tintswalo Khumbuza as Sarah
Idris Elba as Dr. Ben Bass
Beau Bridges as Walter
Kate Winslet as Alex Martin

Writer (novel)

Charles Martin
Chris Weitz
J. Mills Goodloe
Hany Abu-Assad

Cinematographer

Mandy Walker
Ramin Djawadi

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The Mountain Between Us Reviews

Winslet and Elba, of course, remain magnetic screen presences, though their dull character descriptions prevent anything beyond passing emotional investment.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 17, 2022

The Mountain Between Us is an enthralling story from start to finish, one even more captivating to watch thanks to the captivating cinematography and excellent performances from Winslet and Elba.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 21, 2021

Sometimes the movie manages to drag a little as limping Alex slogs along behind Ben but that gives the audience time to admire the breathtaking scenery of the film...

Full Review | Aug 24, 2021

It's all a bit silly - three weeks in and unwashed they still are a fetching couple - but at least there's no cannibalism and no, they don't eat the dog.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 1, 2021

By no means original, but Winslet and Elba have plenty of chemistry to keep you invested.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2020

...there's nothing that stands out so much as to make the film worth recommending.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 1, 2020

Beautiful people, beautiful scenery. It's hard to screw that up. But they really did.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jul 12, 2020

Much like the ill-fated flight that opens the film, The Mountain Between Us starts strong, cruises along at a serviceable altitude, and then comes crashing down in the end.

Full Review | May 14, 2020

What we get is a weird survival romance with tedious dialogue. I love Winslet, as I'm sure we all do, but after a while her character goes from witty to whiny.

Full Review | Jan 7, 2020

it is a failed drama that is not worse almost exclusively because of the work of Elba and Winslet. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 8, 2019

If you love Winslet or Elba or you read the book, then you should see this movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 5, 2019

Elba and Winslet are both excellent, and when the saga continues beyond where most other movies would have it end, they provide the glue that holds the increasingly diffuse project together.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 21, 2019

Elba and Winslet are magnetic from the start, and do their best to elevate the otherwise tired material.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 4, 2019

Brisk action, blossoming romance, and a dog: it may not scream Oscar, but that doesn't mean The Mountain Between Us isn't one of the best movies in theatres right now.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 16, 2019

This is a very dopey romantic survival story. Good thing for this movie is I like dopey romantic survival stories.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 4, 2019

A forgettable survival in the snow tale.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Feb 25, 2019

Ultimately let down by a weak, sappy screenplay and a disappointing final act that may have you scoffing into your popcorn.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 22, 2019

It's as if someone wrote a high-end romantic drama and couldn't sell it, so they decided to turn the meet-cute into a plane-crash-in-the-wilderness-cute.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Feb 11, 2019

You should know going into the film that it is probably 65% romance/drama and only 35% suspenseful survival story. If you go in with those expectations, I think you'll better appreciate the film.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Feb 6, 2019

Mired in the feeble drama of vague logistical bickering, predictable revelations, and tiresome logic-vs-instinct dichotomies.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jan 19, 2019

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‘the mountain between us’: film review | tiff 2017.

Kate Winslet and Idris Elba star as two plane crash survivors who find their way to romance in 'The Mountain Between Us,' director Hany Abu-Assad's adaptation of Charles Martin's novel.

By Jordan Mintzer

Jordan Mintzer

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When Kate Winslet and Idris Elba play two strangers whose plane crashes in the middle of the Rockies, there’s one of two things that can happen: Either they’ll run out of food and wind up going all Alive on each other, or they’ll find some creative ways to keep warm.

Luckily for fans of crowd-pleasing epic romances, there seems to be just enough for them to eat in The Mountain Between Us , an easily digestible love story cum survival tale that tosses two excellent actors in the snow and lets them do their thing.

The Bottom Line A romance on the rocks that goes down smoothly enough.

Far from sophisticated, but filled with eye-popping locations and an eye-popping pair of performers who, in their best scenes, exude an almost Capra-esque whimsy in the face of grave danger, this Fox release should climb its way to decent returns when it hits theaters early October.

Adapted from the book by Charles Martin, Mountain marks the Hollywood debut of Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, whose features Paradise Now and Omar were both nominated for foreign-language film Oscars. While those two movies dealt specifically with the conflict in the Middle East, the 55-year-old filmmaker easily makes the transition here to, let us say, less substantial material — even if there’s nothing trivial about going down in a plane with the most attractive partner imaginable.

Winslet stars as Alex and Elba as Ben. She’s a daring photojournalist who’s not afraid to take a few plunges in life, while he’s an anal-retentive British neurosurgeon based in Baltimore. (Did Stringer Bell attend medical school?) When the two meet at Salt Lake City airport after their flight is cancelled, they charter a plane together so that Alex can make it to her own wedding and Ben can attend an important conference. It seems like a good idea for about two minutes until their pilot (Beau Bridges) drives them into a storm and then has what looks to be a stroke.

Down they go, crash-landing atop a range of snowy peaks with only a few packs of almonds and a dog that somehow survives along with them. Ben is less banged up than Alex, who busted her leg, but luckily the surgeon knows just how to fix it and also has the first aid kit to do so. By the time Alex recovers, they’re running out of food and need to make a decision: Do they wait for a search party or venture out into the wilderness?

The script by Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe smoothly jumps from one obstacle to the next as the two are brought closer and closer together, cuddling up for support (it’s cold out there!), especially when it seems like they’ll never make it out. Every so often, usually when things are just starting to look up, the writers throw in a major monkey wrench to up the stakes, with each hurdle helping to solder the would-be couple’s affection.

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The Mountain Between Us Review

Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are unquestionably two of the brightest stars that the industry has. They are impressively consistent, and always compelling, and have demonstrated great range. To their credit, they live up to their reputations in director Hany Abu-Assad's The Mountain Between Us , and deliver performances expected of their caliber, however, they entirely carry what is otherwise a shockingly dull survival romance.

The material comes from the novel of the same name and has been adapted by Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe -- starting off finding Alex (Kate Winslet) and Ben (Idris Elba) in crisis mode at an Idaho airport. The former, an adventurous photojournalist, is trying to get home in time for her wedding; and the latter, an introverted neurosurgeon, is trying to get to Baltimore in time for a life-saving surgery, but both are halted by cancelled flights. Recognizing their shared conundrum, they team up to get a charter plane that can get them past the storm, but things get truly disastrous when the pilot (Beau Bridges) has a stroke mid-flight and they crash high in the mountains.

Ben wakes to find Alex alive but unconscious and with a dangerously gashed leg, and things don't get much better when he ventures out of the fuselage to discover that they are not only high up, but that there is no sign of civilization in any direction. When Alex does finally wake up, the debate over the best way to survive begins -- with supplies running out and flares unable to get them any attention. It's eventually decided that they have no choice but to try and descend the mountain, the dead pilot's unnamed dog in tow, and endure the possible hazards they may encounter along the way.

Echoing the earlier point, The Mountain Between Us ' utmost strength is its leads, and both Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are legitimately great in it. It's always impressive to see the biggest stars become invisible within a role, and even given what are really rote characters, they still make them spark. To the credit of both the performers and the production, their chemistry together is wonderful and has a legitimate emotional progression to it as the story unfolds and the need for survival draws Alex and Ben closer together. It's specifically the draw of Winslet and Elba that keeps you invested in the film, because there is very little else about it that works nearly as hard.

The Mountain Between Us posits itself genre-wise as a survival romance, but the film is definitely more invested in the second half of that label than the first. To put it bluntly, for a story that begins with a terrible, fatal plane crash, "peril" is barely part of the cinematic experience. The protagonists do sport some injuries from the accident, but through the bulk of the many-weeks-long story they look and act shockingly unaffected by the sub-zero weather conditions and minimal food rations. These are characters who should be gaunt and developing frostbite on their noses and cheeks, but it's as though the movie is afraid to let them become less pretty because it may make their budding romance less attractive.

For as many dangers as there are presented on the side of a snowy mountain, the film is also all but completely lacking in natural conflict -- with singular problems occasionally presenting themselves only to be overcome one scene later. With the exception of one scene late in the narrative where Ben puts his doctor skills to good use (which I won't spoil here), we never get to see any kind of creative problem solving, which is typically the lifeblood of survival stories. Normally you'd expect a struggle to find shelter or dangerous adventures scaling down cliffs, but in The Mountain Between Us there is always a cave or nice overhang around the corner, and you can always avoid the cliffs by the less perilous way around.

Weirdly not helping things is Hany Abu-Assad's direction and the cinematography. The production certainly deserves props for actually filming The Mountain Between Us on a real mountain and not making use of CGI, but it also feels all wrong. Once again tipping the scales in favor of the romance over survival story, the environment never feels daunting or dangerous (again, not helped by Kate Winslet and Idris Elba's unblemished good looks), and instead is painted to look majestic and beautiful. Ultimately it feels like it is never more than being one step away from being about a couple's fantastical vacation, with their friendly dog by their side frolicking through the snow.

The Mountain Between Us almost has a hypnotizing quality to it, with so many impressive parts operating within a machine that doesn't really doesn't function properly. If you can be bought and sold purely on the romance it may be worth your money, but know that the rest of it does not hold up well at all to scrutiny.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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Review: Love in a Cold Climate in ‘The Mountain Between Us’

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Oct. 5, 2017

To watch the magnetic Idris Elba trudge through a monumental dud like “The Mountain Between Us” is almost physically painful. Paired with an aloof Kate Winslet — with whom he has less chemistry than he did with Wood Harris , who played his business partner on “The Wire” — he works very hard to appear oblivious to the script’s many idiocies. He does not succeed.

A disaster movie by any definition, this sappy adaptation of Charles Martin’s 2010 novel places Ben (Mr. Elba), a melancholy neurosurgeon, on a charter plane to Denver with Alex (Ms. Winslet), a supremely irritating photojournalist. Having joined forces when their commercial flight from Idaho was grounded by a storm, the two are further dismayed when their folksy pilot (Beau Bridges) suffers a stroke and smashes them into a snowy peak. Now they have to rescue not just themselves, but the pilot’s golden Labrador — which has no name and, apparently, no appetite.

Caught between the harsh demands of a survival story and the emotional beats of a romantic drama, the director, Hany Abu-Assad, grabs hold of neither. As the pair traipse to safety, artifice rules: A cougar is dispatched with shameless ease; an abandoned cabin manifests just in time to save a life and — almost three weeks into their ordeal — allow the couple to enjoy what is almost certainly malodorous sex. I half expected them to discover the fixings for a full English breakfast.

On the upside, the frozen landscapes (shot in Canada by Mandy Walker ) are lovely, and the dog is adorable. It’s incredible that neither one of our starving lovers thought to eat it.

Rated PG-13. Someone ought to have placed a mountain between them. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes.

Toronto Film Review: ‘The Mountain Between Us’

After a plane crash, Kate Winslet and Idris Elba discover their only chance of staying alive is sticking together. But what happens after?

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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An odd choice of American studio project from Dutch/Palestinian director — and two-time Oscar foreign-language nominee — Hany Abu-Assad (“Paradise Now,” “Omar”), “The Mountain Between Us” begins with a spectacular disaster, as a private plane crash-lands atop a snow-covered ridge in what’s known as the High Uintas Wilderness in northern Utah. It’s all downhill from there, literally, as Kate Winslet , Idris Elba and the dead pilot’s dog attempt to make their way back to civilization.

Between its beautiful stars and panoramic vistas, this gorgeous-looking Fox production offers plenty of scenery to ogle, but not much else for the brain to do while Winslet and Elba alternately bicker and bond in what amounts to a fairly routine wilderness trek — minus wolves, avalanches, frostbite or any of the challenges that typically make such things interesting. Instead, true to the eminently skimmable novel on which it’s based (Charles Martin writes like a child. In sentences without subjects. Or verbs.), the central questions are, first, whether the pair will survive, and then, more bizarrely, whether the experience will forge them into a romantic couple.

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To that, you could add: Will you cry? Maybe. Director Abu-Assad and screenwriters Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe certainly want to flush those tears right outta your ducts, although they don’t seem to understand — or maybe they just aren’t especially interested in — the themes that Martin was attempting to explore when he wrote the book, which focuses more on how difficult it can be to live up to the traditional ideals of love and marriage.

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Whereas the book is told from the POV of Elba’s character, a neurosurgeon named Ben who needs to get to Denver to perform an urgent surgery, the movie slightly favors Winslet, who’s rushing to her wedding, which is scheduled for the following day. Not like anyone will object, but she’s a lot different from the character Martin describes in the book, a columnist for women’s magazines named Ashley: “Think Winona Ryder in ‘Girl, Interrupted.’ Or Julia Ormond in Harrison Ford’s remake of ‘Sabrina,’” he writes. “Or Kate Winslet, when Margot Robbie and Rosamund Pike drop out of the project,” he might have added.

Clearly, there were many other options of how the central couple might have looked. Here, Winslet’s character has been rechristened and reconceived as Alex, a headstrong photojournalist, and the one to charter the plane into the storm. That sounds like a bad idea by any measure, but as it turns out, the storm isn’t a problem. It’s their pilot (Beau Bridges) that Ben and Alex ought to be worried about. In one virtuoso shot, Abu-Assad moves fore and aft in the tiny plane, rotating 180 degrees a couple times before taking his place in the cockpit, from which things go handheld as the pilot’s heart gives out, the tail rips off and the plane begins its terrifying descent.

When they come to, Alex’s leg is fractured and Ben has a nasty wound on his side that looks like internal bleeding. The dog is OK. Repeat, the dog is OK. Alex invokes the “Rule of Three”: People can survive three days without water, three hours without shelter and three minutes without air. But here’s another rule, this one for screenwriters: Give the audience some sense of the journey’s scope. How long do the characters survive? No clue. How far must they walk to the nearest sign of civilization? No idea.

In the book, the answers are more than four weeks and 50 miles, though the filmmakers have a bigger challenge with another: Will they fall in love? They’re a man and a woman in a movie with no other actors for 90% of its running time, so you do the math. (If it were just Ben and the dog, the outcome might be a bit more mysterious.) Eventually, Ben and Alex realize their only chance of staying alive is sticking together. But what happens after?

Script shortcomings aside, Winslet and Elba make a reasonably good couple. He’s far manlier than practically any of the other male stars working today, but etched with a sensitive side that comes out when it’s finally revealed why he seems less concerned about his wife than she does her fiancé. And Winslet can be tough: After all, she survived the sinking of the Titanic, so it’ll take more than plunging through the surface of a frozen to stop her here. If only they took the opportunity of all this time together getting to know one another — or revealing how such a shared trauma can really impact human beings.

As icy plane crashes go, this one pales next to “Alive” or “The Grey,” while in terms of character insight, it’s got nothing on Julia Loktev’s “The Loneliest Planet” from a few years back. Whereas “The Mountain Between Us” was adapted from 300-odd semi-literate pages of three- and four-word sentences (Wilson’s prose makes Dan Brown sound like David Foster Wallace), Loktev’s film found more depth in a short story called “Expensive Trips Nowhere.” Incidentally, that would have been a perfect title for a movie in which neither the subzero temperature nor the romantic heat penetrates more than skin deep.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala), Sept. 9, 2017. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 104 MIN.

Production: A Twentieth Century Fox release of a Fox 2000 presentation of a Chernin Entertainment production. Producers: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, David Ready. Executive producers: Becki Trujillo, Fred Berger.
Crew: Director: Hany Abu-Assad. Screenplay: J. Mills Goodloe, Chris Weitz, based on the novel by Charles Martin. Camera (color, widescren): Mandy Walker. Editor: Lee Percy. Music: Ramin Djawadi.
With: Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Beau Bridges, Dermot Mulroney.

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The mountain between us.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 21 Reviews
Kids Say 16 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Mountain trek peril in non-scary but well-acted romance.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

A sensual sex scene includes kissing, moaning, and near-nudity (male chest, fema

One instance of "f---ing" used in frustration, plus "s--t," "damn," "hell," and

Frequent peril/tension, but no graphic violence shown on-screen. Post-plane-cras

Any Positive Content?

Both main characters are smart, brave, and extremely even tempered. Ben, particu

Two people put aside their differences to survive in an extremely dangerous envi

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A sensual sex scene includes kissing, moaning, and near-nudity (male chest, female abdomen and cleavage), but it's not explicit in that no genitals/sensitive body parts are shown. Alex briefly wears a see-through top that makes her nipples fairly visible. Additional scenes of a shirtless man.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

One instance of "f---ing" used in frustration, plus "s--t," "damn," "hell," and "Jesus Christ" as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent peril/tension, but no graphic violence shown on-screen. Post-plane-crash injuries and a death. A character's leg is caught in a bear trap. Offscreen fight between a cougar and a dog.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Both main characters are smart, brave, and extremely even tempered. Ben, particularly, is ingenious, honorable, and courageous. One main character is engaged but pursues romance elsewhere. In terms of diversity, half the main cast (which is all of two characters) is female, and the other half is black.

Positive Messages

Two people put aside their differences to survive in an extremely dangerous environment. Perseverance pays off.

Parents need to know that The Mountain Between Us , based on Charles Martin's novel of the same name, tells the story of two strangers ( Idris Elba and Kate Winslet ) stuck in the snowy wilderness after a tragic plane crash. Expect scenes of mountain trek peril, but there's no graphic violence. ( Spoiler alert! ) Post-plane-crash injuries are shown, there's some danger to a dog, and one character's leg is caught in a bear trap. A sensual sex scene includes kissing, moaning, and near-nudity, and a shirtless man is shown more than once. The primary concern for younger viewers will be tension/worry over whether the main characters (including the dog) can survive. But it's not exactly a nail-biter, and the characters -- who exhibit courage and perseverance -- never really show any realistic effects of weeks of deprivation, making it a fairly "safe" experience, as survival stories go. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Kids say (16)

Based on 21 parent reviews

Skip the Movie, Read the Book

One scene spoils an otherwise good movie, what's the story.

In THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US, a doctor named Ben ( Idris Elba ) and a photojournalist named Alex ( Kate Winslet ) survive a plane crash, only to find themselves injured and stranded in the high mountain wilderness. Along with a trusty dog, Alex and Ben use their intelligence and grit to try to reach civilization through a cold and hazardous environment. And despite her impending marriage and his mysterious past, the pair find themselves drawn to each other during their ordeal.

Is It Any Good?

This romantic drama is most compelling as a mild story of survival adventure. Contemporary romances often stumble over the first hurdle: Their dramatic obstacle. In this age of global communications and (presumed) enlightenment, what is there to keep true lovers apart? As the title implies, The Mountain Between Us comes with a fair-sized obstacle built in: The titular mountain, in winter, as the protagonists survive a plane crash atop it and struggle to descend it to civilization. So in this case, the apparent obstacle is actually what brings them together, sort of like Titanic , which also starred Winslet. Here, she plays plucky photojournalist Alex, opposite Elba as ingenious but calm neurosurgeon Ben. Alex's active nature is the catalyst to keep things moving, which is something, because otherwise the movie plays like Ben saving them, over and over.

Alex and Ben's struggle is interesting because survival stories are, by nature, interesting and because Winslet and Elba are excellent actors. They absolutely carry the movie, keeping the stakes high and the dangers real, even when the filmmaking tends toward the unfortunately sanitized. This isn't a gritty or harrowing experience à la Alive or The Grey . Physical and emotional realities are brushed aside in favor of a budding romance. Why, for instance, do we not see the effects of wind, snow, sun exposure, and starvation on Alex and Ben's faces and bodies as their ordeal stretches over a month? His ribs are broken, but he does a heck of a lot of stuff that would be difficult for a perfectly healthy, well-nourished person. And as even-keeled as they may be, Alex and Ben's language seems downright polite for folks facing what they think is certain death. Director Hany Abu-Assad (two-time Oscar nominee for Paradise Now and Omar ) does bravura work in the plane crash scene, which is presented as one continuous take. But when the characters aren't in danger of dying, their story tends toward schmaltz. Without an actual mountain between them (and survival), the obstacles keeping them apart lose their potency – and so does the film.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why they think the filmmakers of The Mountain Between Us chose not to show the realistically gritty side of the characters' extreme situation. Would showing the characters starving and in conflict have made their romance harder to believe?

How do the characters exhibit courage and perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

Were you surprised at the direction Alex and Ben's relationship took during their ordeal? What would you have done differently in their situation?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 6, 2017
On DVD or streaming : December 26, 2017
Cast : Kate Winslet , Idris Elba , Dermot Mulroney
Director : Hany Abu-Assad
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
Studio : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Genre : Drama
Topics : Book Characters
Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance
Run time : 103 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : a scene of sexuality, peril, injury images, and brief strong language
Last updated : December 2, 2022

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The Mountain Between Us (2017)

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Stephen King-Approved Thriller With 96% RT Score Crosses Strong Box Office Milestone

10 things from the star wars original trilogy that haven't aged well, 2024's highest grossing film just passed 2019's lion king to become 9th biggest movie of all time, winslet and elba give it their all, but the mountain between us is an absurd and forgettable affair that leaves little impact with viewers..

Photojournalist Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) is in desperate need to fly back home from an assignment in Idaho because she's set to be married soon. Unfortunately, her commercial flight is canceled due to inclement weather, and she has to decide between missing her wedding or finding a solution to her problem. While trying to think of an idea, Alex overhears the pleas of neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba), who has to return to Baltimore to perform an operation. Offering help, Alex lands Ben a spot on a charter flight she booked with pilot Walter (Beau Bridges).

Shortly after takeoff, the incoming storm makes flight conditions quite hazardous, and despite Walter's best efforts, the plane crashes in the snow-covered mountains. Injured and stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way to contact the outside world, Alex and Ben are forced to work together to find a way back to civilization before they succumb to the harsh conditions of the wilderness.

Kate Winslet and Idris Elba in The Mountain Between Us

Though marketed more as a survival thriller, The Mountain Between Us is in actuality a blending of two different genres, as it is an adaptation of Charles Martin's romance novel of the same name. It attempts to tell a story of blossoming love between two strangers as they endure a trying ordeal with each other, but unfortunately, it comes up short of achieving those goals. Winslet and Elba give it their all, but The Mountain Between Us is an absurd and forgettable affair that makes little impact with viewers.

The script, credited to Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe, is where most of the problems lie, as the writing team is unable to strike the proper balance between its two subplots. Little time is put into developing a believable and compelling dynamic between Alex and Ben to sell audiences on the romance, and the stakes of the survival element arguably aren't severe enough to put people on the edge of their seats. While the perils of the situation (i.e. limited food and resources) are frequently underscored, The Mountain Between Us never full commits to the bit, and the contrived romance that forms saps some of the energy out of this angle. Instead of a more realistic story of two people thrown together in an extraordinary circumstance, the film stretches credibility to the point where the intended emotional beats fall flat. A predictable trajectory is followed, with few expectations subverted.

In addition to storytelling shortcomings, the roles of Alex and Ben are very thin, with minimal effort put into their characterizations. In the beginning, the film tries to pit them as mismatched personalities (Ben is more practical while Alex is reckless), but it's more of a way to manufacture cheap tension between the two than anything else. The two are more vessels for viewers to experience the story vicariously through, rather than three-dimensional, fully formed individuals. This can be effective at times, but the approach prevents The Mountain Between Us from forming a meaningful emotional connection with the audience. Most of the time, viewers are simply watching two famous actors trek their way through the snow, and the pacing drags as a result. The film also overstays its welcome - even with a runtime of less than two hours - with a third act that crawls along and tacks on multiple endings.

As expected, Elba and Winslet do all they can to elevate the material, and they're mostly successful. Their chemistry may not light up the screen, but they still make for a nice couple and keep the proceedings as engaging as they can. Of course, both have delivered more effective turns in their respective careers, but the faults of The Mountain Between Us are a byproduct of the writing more than weak acting. In a film like this, the supporting cast is going to be small, but Bridges sports some good old-fashioned charm in his small role as Walter. Winslet and Elba also get ample opportunity to play off Walter's dog, who is very much the "Steven Seagull" of this story - the animal companion who offers good company for the humans during their journey. Admittedly, the dog doesn't add much of substance to the film, but he makes for a fun presence on the big screen.

Idris Elba and Kate Winslet in The Mountain Between Us

From a technical perspective, The Mountain Between Us is competently made. Director Hany Abu-Assad doesn't do anything groundbreaking with the camera, but his shot selection and use of wide angles makes for imagery that convincingly illustrates Alex and Ben's isolation and establishes the geography of the mountainous landscape. He and his team deserve credit for taking the time to shoot most of the movie on-location in unforgiving temperatures, which helps ground the film in something tangible. Granted, this is no Revenant in terms of filmmaking achievement, but Abu-Assad and cinematographer Mandy Walker craft eye-catching scenery that at times can show just how beautiful the mountains are (under different circumstances, of course).

In the end, The Mountain Between Us makes for a standard, unmemorable time at the movies. Even with a pair of awards-worthy actors headlining, the script leaves too much to be desired in order for it to go down as the next great cinematic romance. Fans of the book may enjoy seeing the story brought to life on the big screen with the likes of Elba and Winslet, but this ultimately is going to have a very niche appeal as it tries to stand out amongst the bigger fall releases. Those looking for a harmless date night outing could be inclined to check it out, but it's unlikely to become a breakout success.

The Mountain Between Us is now playing in U.S. theaters. It runs 104 minutes and is rated PG-13 for a scene of sexuality, peril, injury images, and brief strong language.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

The Mountain Between Us

Stranded after a tragic plane crash, two strangers must forge a connection to survive the extreme elements of a remote snow covered mountain. When they realize help is not coming, they embark on a perilous journey across hundreds of miles of wilderness, pushing one another to endure and discovering strength they never knew possible.

Movie Reviews
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Den of Geek

The Mountain Between Us Review

The Mountain Between Us is an old-fashioned movie star vehicle for Idris Elba and Kate Winslet that doesn't really ever go anywhere.

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When The Mountain Between Us was first pitched, it must’ve sounded stunning. Man and woman pitted against the elements! Love and trust blossoming in deep snow! Idris Elba and Kate Winslet! What probably wasn’t mentioned is that The Mountain Between Us is also a time travel movie. How else can you explain a new studio epic so clearly resembling the schmaltzy star vehicles of 20 years ago?

Indeed, here is one of those movies they don’t make anymore. A grand adventure for adults; a fantasy with nary a cape or a magic wand that still nevertheless casts a mighty spell via marquee power. But spells only go so far, and even with Winslet and Elba’s ample chemistry, this really is at times a resigned trudge through the muck. Also, as nice as it is to have a nostalgic return to this generally appealing, star-powered entertainment from the 1990s, there’s not much else that appeals in this straightforward studio soap.

Set just after a visibly white Christmas, two people are desperate to get on a plane—any plane—that will fly them from the west coast to the east. The first of these two star-crossed passengers is Alex Martin (Kate Winslet), an award winning photo journalist who is often shooting in hot spots and war zones, searching for the next scoop. But on this flight, she just wants to get home to New York where she’s scheduled to marry Dermot Mulroney’s dull Mark in only a few hours. Meanwhile, Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba) is a neurosurgeon desperate to make a connecting flight to London where no less than a patient’s brain hangs in the balance!

Yet both see their shared flight canceled due to weather and make the rather unwise decision to charter a private flight from Beau Williams’ Walter, a pilot with “Dead” practically painted on his wings. Sure enough, while high above the Rocky Mountains, Walter experiences a heart attack that sends them all hurtling toward the snow. In the aftermath, Alex has a broken leg and Ben has two unexpected patients between this strong-willed woman and the friendly dog whom Walter left behind. Between the two, Ben prefers the dog.

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But on lonely cold nights, with nothing but each other and a fire to keep them warm, and slowly grimaced backstories involving ended marriages and frustrated careers, maybe—just maybe —these two’ll discover the greatest high found up here is with each other.

The Mountain Between Us is a glossy and decidedly slight studio effort which turns survival and suffering into the stuff of dime romance novels. Framed with postcard perfect vistas, director Hany Abu-Assad dutifully delivers a handsome-looking picture. There are many, many shots of Elba and Winslet wading through slush that rises up to their waists, but with the sunsets captured just right behind them, and with the nameless dog happily bounding through the white beneath their feet, it is nothing less than a slightly more extreme sports version of a Currier and Ives print.

Not that this is wholly bad news. Even if the film is a wintry get away, and an icy Blue Lagoon for a more mature audience, it could still work on those merits. And at times it does thanks to the efforts of Winslet and Elba. In a welcome subversion of audience expectations, Winslet’s Alex is the tougher of the two. Despite a bum leg, she is able to fight off a mountain lion when cornered with only a flare gun. She is also the one who more or less shames the good doctor when he wishes to sit and wait for a rescue. To hell with that! You can stay here if you want, but me, a crutch, and Benji over there are walking down! And as a hunky medicinal enigma, Elba smolders with intensity as he runs behind her, especially as he dutifully tends to Alex’s frequently reinjured leg.

Fiancé? What fiancé?

Unfortunately, these elements are the real set-pieces, and scenes of them actually trekking across a precariously thin lake or facing the danger of a snowstorm are more the film’s window-dressing than tenuous obstacles. Which might be fine if the drama between Alex and Ben did not flatly play as a constant role reversal of one of them having moments of doubt, and the other saying “No, we’re going to make it.” And then a steamy scene by a fireplace in an abandoned cabin later, it will be Alex’s turn to breakdown and send the other away… before breathlessly chasing after him to also tag along.

Less a story of survival than a star vehicle having to endure copious amounts of filler, The Mountain Between Us is lightweight entertainment that mistakes the charisma of its leads as a source of grandiose drama. And even at only an hour and 43 minutes, it still limps along in a far too drawn out denouement. Nevertheless, it reinforces that we can watch Elba and Winslet in just about anything, including this. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t also enjoy them in something that would actually melt the heart, as opposed to this frigid affair.

The Mountain Between Us opens Friday, Oct. 6.

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David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

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Review: the mountain between us.

The film suggests a throwback to one of those old Hollywood moonshots of thorny romance and life-or-death adventure.

It’s no spoiler to say that the mountain between Ben Bass (Idris Elba) and Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) is a symbolic one. Ben is a British neurologist who’s in a rush to get to Baltimore so as to perform emergency surgery. Alex is a photojournalist for The Guardian who needs to get to New York City because she’s getting married the next day. Stuck in Salt Lake City as a snowstorm gathers force, they rent a charter plane to get them to Denver and their connecting flights. But their not-so-best-laid plan is blown up by nature, and a stroke suffered by their pilot (Beau Bridges), leaving them stranded atop a high mountain to contend with more than just the elements.

The Mountain Between Us is a throwback to one of those old Hollywood moonshots of thorny romance and life-or-death adventure, a recombinant version of Strange Cargo and Call of the Wild . And for a while, mainly around its middle stretch, Hany Abu-Assad’s film is notable for the way it fixates on its characters’ rush toward survival, homing in on the intimacy that they achieve without ever suggesting that there’s any actual romance in their future. Ben, resigned to dying, asks Alex to take his picture, but she refuses, remembering a time when she took a photograph of a girl just before an explosion claimed her life. And when Ben and Alex eventually have sex, Elba and Winslet wondrously play the cold functionality of the act, as if these perfect strangers were fucking for no other reason than it might be their last chance to do it.

Ben and Alex—and this may come as a spoiler to some—survive their ordeal, and it’s back in the context of their normal lives, where not having to stare death in the face means having the luxury to more carefully choose one’s words, that the film’s dialogue takes on inexcusably cringe-inducing dimensions. At one point, Alex’s stick-in-the-mud betrothed, Mark (Dermot Mulroney), tells her, and with stone-cold seriousness, how he will always love her even if she comes home with a part of herself missing. To Alex’s credit, she breaks up with him. But the moment is nonetheless conspicuous, one of many screenwriter contrivances that exist like narrative breadcrumbs to mechanically and obligatorily lead Ben and Alex into each other’s arms for good, and in a way that’s almost indifferent to the audience’s intelligence.

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The Mountain Between Us Review

06 Oct 2017

112 minutes

The Mountain Between Us

Survival against the elements is big this month. Daniel Radcliffe is lost in a jungle in Jungle , Josh Hartnett is battling sub-zero temperatures in 6 Below , and Kate Winslet and Idris Elba have several mountains, a forest, and a frozen lake between them, and a civilisation in The Mountain Between Us .

It’s this two-hander that’s the strongest of the three (check the star ratings), possibly because it’s the only one not hamstrung by having to stay faithful to a true story. Any moment it feels as though the energy’s dwindling — boom! Kate Winslet can grab a flare gun to shoot a hostile cougar in the face.

A likeable, witty, romantic adventure film.

Winslet is Alex Martin, a photojournalist trying to get back to New York from Salt Lake City for her wedding the next day. When an incoming storm grounds all flights out of the airport she recruits similarly stranded passenger Ben Bass (Elba), who she overhears telling the airline staff he urgently needs to get back to perform a surgery, to hire a small private plane to take them home. But the plane crashes, the pilot dies and the two of them (plus the pilot’s dog) are stranded on a snowy mountain in Utah’s High Uintas Wilderness. What follows is a tale of survival and, eventually — between the two human survivors, at least — romance.

That this doubles as a love story means that the film doesn’t dwell on survival techniques or the grimness of their situation. And the pair rarely focus on their likely deaths. The script, co-written by Chris Weitz (co-writer of About A Boy ) and J. Mills Goodloe, is instead mostly content to have them bicker, bond or flirt as the situation dictates. That this works at all is down to the two actors. Elba has been underutilised as a romantic lead but, with his easy charm and charisma (and, let’s not kid ourselves, incredible looks), he’s ideal for the role. And it’s refreshing to see him paired with an actress (within a couple of years of) his own age, rather than — as is far more common — 20 years his junior.

But there is still peril, and not just from that cougar. Winslet appears to be channelling Rose from Titanic — Alex’s every instinct seemingly leading the pair into danger, whether it’s wanting to climb down an unscalable cliff face or sending Ben to find where the dog’s run off to. It’s a good job Ben is medically trained, because she’d be dead several times over without him. And every problem is quickly solved, whether it’s a lack of food, a hunt for shelter or Alex being unable to walk — Ben simply drags her behind him across the snow as though she’s a sled. It’s an engaging journey, but not unpredictable — moments of adversity are followed by moments of triumph until their journey comes to an end.

And, despite Alex having a fiancé she was a day away from marrying (who’s presumably frantic with worry for her — although we never see the outside world), you’ll be rooting for them to get together. Whether that’s a good idea or not (Sandra Bullock’s warning in Speed that “relationships based on intense experiences never work” suggests not) becomes moot. There’s a grittier version of this story, with a deeper examination of the morals involved, but that’s not what director Hany Abu-Assad wanted to make. This

is a likeable, witty, romantic adventure film and on those virtues, it succeeds.

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The Mountain Between Us

Review by brian eggert october 8, 2017.

Adapted from Charles Martin’s 2010 best-selling novel, The Mountain Between Us features a lovely cast in absurd, perilous, and romantic conditions. Imagine the possibilities of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba stranded after a plane crash in the Rockies, forced to fight the cold and starvation with nothing more than their bickering to occupy them, and their bodies to keep them warm at night. The poster’s tagline “What if your life depended on a stranger?” seems silly in this context, given that being stranded somewhere with either Winslet or Elba has worked its way into the fantasies of most moviegoers. What’s more, the survival scenario never reaches the dire levels of Frozen (the horror film from 2010, not the Disney animated musical) or The Grey (2011), so our stars have been spared conversations about cannibalism, losing limbs to frostbite, or running from flesh-hungry wolves. Rather, the film offers a comparatively effortless march through the wilderness, focusing on a more pressing question: Will they fall in love?

After receiving two Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Film on Paradise Now (2005) and Omar (2013), Dutch/Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad makes his Hollywood debut for this glossy Twentieth Century Fox release. He opens the film with some showy camera moves that look less impressive, and more CGI-augmented, than they should be. American photojournalist Alex (Winslet) has a short deadline to get home for her wedding the next day. Her commercial flight has been canceled. An English neurosurgeon named Ben (Elba) also needs to arrive in Denver to perform emergency surgery on a young boy. Alex comes up with an idea to charter a small plane from a rugged pilot (Beau Bridges) and his yellow Labrador retriever, and overhearing his situation, she asks Ben to join her.

In the first few moments of the flight, Abu-Assad and cinematographer Mandy Walker perform revolutions around the cockpit and passenger area of the tiny plane in a seemingly unbrokenn shot, the cuts masked by a computer. The stagey sequence serves no functional purpose to the scene except to call attention to itself—and moreover, it’s the only attempt at formal virtuosity in an otherwise straightforward film. All at once, the pilot goes into cardiac arrest and the plane crashes atop a mountain, smashing the emergency beacon. The crash sequence is brief and jarring, but hardly memorable next to more elaborate spectacles in Cast Away (2000) and Flight (2012). And before you freak out, you should know: the dog survives the crash, and in fact, the pooch makes it through the entire film.

Other than that, the crash has left Alex with a nasty wound on her leg and Ben relatively unscathed. Unfortunately, the pilot didn’t file a flight plan, and neither of the passengers told anyone where they’d be—important details to be sure. With few provisions, the two must attempt to find their way down off the mountain and back to civilization. Neither Abu-Assad nor the script by Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe creates any understanding of how far the two must travel, or over what period of time. Days pass in a blink, though the characters never get very far. The use of time and space feels uncertain, and the subzero temperatures never seem to have much consequence on Alex and Ben, but then The Mountain Between Us is less a survival story than a romance.

Winslet and Elba, of course, remain magnetic screen presences, though their dull character descriptions prevent anything beyond passing emotional investment. Alex is impulsive, and her spontaneity doesn’t suit Ben’s methodical stubbornness. These tired, one-note personality types emerge in the occasionally distracting dialogue: Ben says, “I need to occupy my amygdala.” And when he tries to explain to Alex that part of the brain, she defensively says, “I know what an amygdala does.” They’re quite a pair (think Paula Abdul and MC Skatt.) Their eventual romance over time works if only because the story demands it, leading to an epilogue after their rescue that leaves their (predictable) future in question. (Note: The film never explains what happened to the boy that Ben was rushing to save. Bummer.) When it’s all over, The Mountain Between Us takes few risks, but it contains some gorgeous scenery, attractive stars, remains watchable, and largely inoffensive in its mediocrity.

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‘The Mountain Between Us’ Review: Falling in Love with Idris Elba Is the Only Logical Conclusion

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10 Period Movies That Are Perfect From Start to Finish

All the new movies coming to streaming this week: miyazaki's heron soars to a new streaming home, a dark netflix thriller, and more, 'the equalizer' has been avenged the denzel washington action thriller has a new streaming home.

The Mountain Between Us is all about pragmatic decisions. Rather than resort to embellishing a survival drama, it simply goes about its business, trying to put the audience in the shoes of two strangers who must figure out how to find their way back to civilization after a plane crash. It even goes so far as to explain why they didn’t call anyone before their plane took off, so literally no one knows where they are. It makes them the only two people in the world, and in that scenario, it’s really only a matter of time before you fall in love with a dreamy doctor played by Idris Elba . All of the will-they, won’t-they tension kind of goes out the window when that guy is your male lead, and like every decision made by the characters, it’s the perfectly logical one.

Alex ( Kate Winslet ) is a photojournalist who needs to fly home ASAP because her wedding is tomorrow*; Ben (Elba) is a neurosurgeon who needs to fly home ASAP because he has a surgery he needs to perform the following morning. With the airport basically shut down due to weather, Alex overhears Ben’s predicament and offers a way to help. They make their way to a private carrier who offers to get them to another airport where they can catch their flights. When the pilot ( Beau Bridges ) suffers a stroke and the plane crashes, Ben, Alex, and the pilot’s dog are the only survivors. Initially staying put due to Alex’s broken leg and the hope that they’ll be found, the pair eventually realizes they must make their way down the mountain and find civilization if they’re to have any hope of being rescued.

idris-elba-kate-winslet-the-mountain-between-us

Rather than launch into the romance between Alex, who is about to get married, and Ben, who is clearly reluctant to talk about his wife for some ominous reason, director Hany Abu-Assad puts more emphasis getting his characters situated in their environment, showing the isolation of the pair with gorgeous shots of the mountains. Although Alex and Ben are clearly in survival mode and we don’t envy their circumstances, the way Abu-Assad captures the scenery makes it a bit of a stretch to say they’re “roughing it” when everything looks so stunning. The characters are never pelted with a blizzard and we never see fingers about to rot off from frostbite. Alex even points out that water will never be a problem because they can just melt the snow. It’s a survival story, but with Ben as a doctor, it’s never one where you feel the characters are in any immediate danger.

That’s not to say that The Mountain Between Us lacks stakes, but rather those stakes come from the relationship between Ben and Alex and how much they can open up to each other. On the one hand, we know they’re not going to separate, but they each have different, reasonable approaches to survival. Alex thinks they need to get moving, while Ben thinks they should stay put. Once they start moving, they have new obstacles to face. And then there’s the question of whether or not they’ll end up falling for each other.

Except that’s really not that much of a question. It’s Idris Elba. I’m a straight dude who’s getting married in a few weeks, and even I was like, “He’s a doctor, he’s got the charm of Idris Elba, and he’s trying to save her life. How are they not making out yet?” I’m not saying that Alex should leave her fiancée after only a few weeks of being stranded on a mountain with Ben, but I understand.

If you take The Mountain Between Us more as a romance than a survival drama, it works much better because it’s not really interested in the hard choices and narrow escapes that a survival film requires. After all, in a movie with only two people (and a dog), it’s not like one of them is going to die halfway through from hypothermia. It’s all about the relationship, and when Idris Elba plays one-half of that relationship, it’s pretty easy to get on board.

*Out of all the elements of this movie, this one strained credulity the most. People tend not to fly when they’ve got their own wedding scheduled for the following day.

Kate Winslet

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Idris Elba & Kate Winslet Battle For Survival In ‘The Mountain Between Us’ [TIFF Review]

In Charles Martin ’s novel “ The Mountain Between Us” and in director Hany Abu-Assad ’s new big screen adaptation of the work, the mountain is as literal as it is metaphorical. Martin’s story begins with a twin-engine charter plane crashing in the High Uintas Wilderness in Utah, killing the pilot and leaving two strangers stranded in the middle of nowhere, cut off from civilization and communication. The survivors are stuck on a steep peak, with nothing but hills and cliffs on the horizon. They won’t be able to get to safety unless they can make it across not just one mountain, but several.

READ MORE: Idris Elba & Kate Winslet Are Stranded In The Cold In First Trailer For ‘The Mountain Between Us’

So the “Mountain” part of the title makes sense. It’s just the “Us” that Abu-Assad and credited screenwriters Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe seem to have forgotten.

Idris Elba stars in “The Mountain Between Us” as Dr. Ben Bass, a neurosurgeon with a keen intellect and an overabundance of caution. Kate Winslet plays Alex Martin, a photojournalist who was rushing home to Denver for her wedding day when her commercial flight was cancelled due to weather, forcing her to book a charter flight with a similarly under-the-gun Ben (who needed to get back to Baltimore for an emergency operation). The duo have to work together to survive, which the movie’s title suggests will be enormously difficult, perhaps due to some sort of personality conflict or deeply ingrained biases that’ll make it tough for them to trust each other. And frankly, that conflict never materializes.

This lack of an old-fashioned ‘bristling then befriending’ arc wouldn’t be so much of a problem — in fact, it’d be welcome — if “The Mountain Between Us” were more successful as an intense outdoor adventure. There are few genres more inherently cinematic and exciting than survival tales, which show humans thinking their way through impossible problems and making a series of clever moves, coupled with hard physical labor. This film, though, spaces out its big thrills. Even when Alex gets attacked by a cougar and Ben nearly slides off a cliff, Abu-Assad and company introduce the danger and then resolve it quickly, without ever showing the audience how long it takes these two to recover from the setback.

But it’s only ever mildly engaging. The story skips a lot of fairly essential steps, like showing the conversations Ben and Alex have during the days that they spend stuck at their makeshift camp, or having them break down exactly what their planned objective is from mile to mile of their hike through treacherous terrain. Without those little touches — and without dwelling more on how quickly these two went from having urgent business to being plunged into a life and death struggle — there’s not really much to pull the audience through to the end. The big hook here is meant to be an occasional tease of Ben’s personal problems, which he refuses to discuss with Alex. But neither that nor the pair’s growing intimacy on the trail is enough to give the movie much oomph.

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DVD & Streaming

The Mountain Between Us

Action/Adventure , Drama , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

October 6, 2017
Idris Elba as Ben Bass; Kate Winslet as Alex Martin; Beau Bridges as Walter; Dermot Mulroney as Mark

Home Release Date

December 26, 2017
Hany Abu-Assad

Distributor

20th Century Fox

Movie Review

As a general rule, you should never, ever, under any circumstance crawl into a small plane if you’re a character in a movie.

Alex and Ben didn’t get the memo.

Professional photographer Alex Martin and neurosurgeon Ben Bass find themselves stranded in Salt Lake City after their flight to Denver is canceled due to an incoming winter storm. Both desperately need to reach their respective destinations. Alex is getting married the next day in Denver. And Ben has a life-or-death brain surgery to perform on a 10-year-old boy. Both are equally irate when their flight’s passenger service agent informs them all other flights have been canceled, too.

A phone call later, Alex asks Ben, whom she’s never met, to come with her. Minutes later they wander into a hanger with a small plane and a pilot who’s willing to fly them to Denver.

He’s an old-school kind of guy. A fly-by-sight, no-need-to-file-a-flight-plan kind of guy. Kinda like, say, crop dusting.

For that matter, he’s also just old , too.

Walter’s pleasantly chatting up his customers when he suffers a stroke as they soar over mountains that look as if no human being has ever set foot on them. The stroke doesn’t kill him. But the crash atop a lonely, snow-covered mountain peak soon does.

Apart from some facial abrasions and a cut on his abdomen, Ben’s none the worse for wear. Alex, however, has a bloody gash on one of her legs. She doesn’t wake up for 36 hours, during which the good doctor tends to her injuries.

But when she does awaken, she and Ben have a decision to make: to stay put and wait for a rescue, or to strike out into the wintry wilderness in the hope that they can make their way to some outpost of civilization.

Cerebral, control-focused Ben believes their best chance of survival hinges upon staying put. Alex, however, is a woman guided by instinct and intuition. Neither of those discernment organs are telling her to stick around. “Look, I don’t want to die up here because you’re too scared to take a risk,” she says. “I don’t want to die because you’re reckless and selfish,” he retorts.

And that’s just the first dilemma—but by no means the last—they’ll have to solve if they’re going to escape a cold, permanent fate on the mountain.

Positive Elements

The Mountain Between Us generates much of its dramatic tension not only from the desperate circumstances Ben and Alex unwittingly find themselves in, but from their different problem-solving strategies. Ben is cautions, calculating, conservative. Alex? She’s an emotional, gut-level decision maker. Each passionately tries to convince the other of the merits of their respective plans. Neither is fully convinced.

Eventually they go. And as their cold days in the wilderness stretch into weeks, they slowly begin to see the merit in the other person’s way of approaching the situation. Ben and Alex don’t relate very well at first. But as they repeatedly risk their lives for each other and face the grim prospect of starving and/or freezing to death, they develop a deep bond. (More on that in Sexual Content.) They take turns mutually encouraging each other when one or the other is struggling emotionally.

Ben harbors hard secrets that Alex tries diligently to get him to talk about. Eventually he confides that he’s experienced a tragedy that he couldn’t control. Ben’s determination to maintain control is shown to be both his greatest asset and his greatest personal liability. Similarly, Alex’s headstrong, emotional nature is also shown to be a character trait that has advantages and disadvantages in certain situations.

Spiritual Elements

As Ben buries Walter in a snowy grave, he says, “God bless you.” He also says, “God knows,” “thank God,” and “thank God you’re back” (the latter after Alex loses consciousness after a crisis). Later in the film, he talks about how our bodies respond to intense physical traumas, saying, “It’s quite ingenious what God did. Your body figures it out.”

Sexual & romantic Content

Early on, Alex makes a joke about Ben looking up her skirt as he tends to her wounded leg. They lie down next to each other to sleep in order to stay warm.

Late in the film, Ben and Alex discover a dilapidated and long-abandoned cabin where they hole up for a time. In an emotional moment, they kiss. Then more. The ensuing, steamy scene pictures clothes removed and bodies mingled. Nudity is strategically avoided. But movements, groping and sounds are heard in a sex scene that is nevertheless surprisingly explicit for a PG-13 film. Afterward, he’s shown shirtless, and she’s wearing a nearly see-through shirt without a bra.

[ Spoiler Warning ] After Alex and Ben successfully make it out of the wilderness alive, she calls off her wedding and the entire relationship with her fiancé, Mark. She eventually finds Ben (who, being British, is back in London) and confides that their experience together ultimately changed her too much for her to stay with Mark. A separate scene pictures him showering. (We see his upper torso.) Near the film’s end, Alex and Ben kiss passionately again.

Violent Content

The plane crash is pretty much a standard-issue movie plane crash: violent, jarring, lots of stuff flying around. It knocks everyone out. (Permanently, in Walter’s case.) When Ben and Alex finally awaken, they find that Alex’s leg is badly injured. (Her face is pretty beaten up too, for that matter.) We never really see the leg wound up close, but it’s implied that it’s a bad one. Ben splints it, and Alex uses a makeshift crutch to help her move. Ben has a nasty wound on his stomach and lacerations on his face.

Alex eventually has a close encounter with a prowling mountain lion, which she shoots with a flare gun. That does the cat in (Ben finds its corpse, field dresses it, and uses the meat to keep them alive), but not before the cat does a number on the third member of Alex and Ben’s party: Walter’s dog. We hear the cat and dog tangle, and the pooch returns with an ear that’s been badly chewed up. We watch Ben stitch it up as the poor pup whines.

Someone ends up falling through a frozen lake and nearly dies. Another character has a painful encounter with a bear trap. And the couple’s trek through the snow and wild is full of tension and suspense. Ben jerry-rigs an IV of sorts to help Alex stay hydrated, and we see him pierce a vein in her arm.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word. Nine s-words. About 10 misuses each of God’s name (once paired with “d–n”) as well as Jesus’ name. We hear one use each of “a–,” “d–mit” and “h—.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Several characters drink alcohol (beer, wine) at a party and at a restaurant. Alex talks about taking Advil for her pain.

Other noteworthy Elements

We hear Alex urinate and see the contents (in a bowl) being dumped in the snow. Later she talks about needing to “pee.”

Alex finds Ben’s digital audo recorder and listens to a message from a woman in Ben’s past. Alex feels guilty for doing so, but she obviously feels justified in snooping because he doesn’t tell her much about himself for some time. Ultimately, he catches her listening, which prompts him to share more of his painful story (after he yells at her for snooping through his stuff).

Why do survival stories fascinate us? After all, they tend to be pretty linear, plot-wise: People in a plane crash. People struggle to survive. Perhaps it’s because these life-or-death dramas invite us to vicariously project ourselves into them, to wonder what we might do in a similarly desperate situation.

The Mountain Between Us (based on Charles Martin’s 2010 novel of the same name) plays on that question by giving us characters who answer it in two radically different ways. Ben wants to stay put. Alex wants to go. And for me at least, that section of the movie felt the most compelling, the most believable. What would I do in that circumstance? I wondered. I’m not sure, actually.

But once Alex and Ben set off through the snow to find, well, anyone , things kind of fell apart for me. I kept noticing stuff they suddenly have that they didn’t seem to have before, kept being distracted by nagging questions about the story’s believability. Where did he get those great boots? I wondered. Where did that blanket come from? Is it really that easy to make a big fire in the middle of the winter? Wouldn’t hypothermia kill you pretty quickly if you fell through a frozen lake and were submerged for a couple of minutes?

Then Alex and Ben have spontaneous, surprisingly explicit sex for a PG-13 movie. From there, The Mountain Between Us feels less like a survival story and more like a Nicholas Sparks movie (albeit one where no one dies in the end). Toss in quite a bit of profanity—including quite a few misuses of Jesus’ name—and this movie has as many content concerns as it has difficult-to-believe plot points.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Movie Review: The Mountain Between Us (2017)

Doug Hennessy
Movie Reviews
No responses
--> November 2, 2017

The heated romantic passion of Charles Martin’s best-selling romance novel “The Mountain Between Us,” turns lukewarm in its cinematic version of the same name that stars Kate Winslet (“ Collateral Beauty ”) and Idris Elba (“ The Dark Tower ”) as a couple of strangers stranded in the frigid high-mountain snow of the Rocky Mountains.

Alex Martin (an excellent Winslet), is a photojournalist trying to get from the west coast to Denver to transfer to a New York flight so she can get to her wedding on time. Big storms have canceled her flight, however. But, there just happens to be, right nearby, Ben Bass (Elba), a surgeon looking to desperately get back to New York so he can operate on a ten-year-old boy.

The two team up, charter a flight for Denver with Beau Bridges (“ The Descendants ”) at the stick, and off they go only to crash in the middle of nowhere high up in the ice and snow-crested mountains. And because there was no flight plan registered, their hope of rescue is near nonexistent.

Their struggle for survival against the elements, injuries and each other is a story that mixes two genres: Dramatic romance and survival adventure. The two leads go for broke with Chris Weitz’s and J. Mills Goodloe’s tepid script, but are a pleasure to watch nonetheless, as they struggle along in the waist-deep snow, chasing away cougars and falling through the ice in frozen lakes. Director Hany Abu-Assad (“The Courier”) with cinematographer Mandy Walker (“ Red Riding Hood ”), provides plenty of mountain vistas to emphasize the vast and desperate loneliness of Ben and Alex to great effect. The trouble comes as the audience senses how the actors, director, and cinematographer are adding more sensuality and depth to the story than the script can allow (these aspects work better on a tropical island; although a comedy, see “Six Days Seven Nights” as an example).

The survival adventure of The Mountain Between Us is what keeps us watching. The fizzling romance just seems to go along like a bullet-point presentation for government accountability. First this happens, then that happens and next comes this, simply because the plot requires it to to keep things marching forward. Nothing seems to grow organically out of the unique individualism of the characters, so there isn’t any Hepburn/Bogart, “The African Queen” character-driven fireworks in this romantic adventure.

And that’s a real shame. The script stifles Winslet’s and Elba’s superior talents, leaving the audience wishing for so much more than the actors — even though they are admirably trying — are able to give.

Tagged: accident , airplane , couple , novel adaptation , survival

Critic of movies. Board member of film festivals. All around great guy.

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The Mountain Between Us movie review (2017)
Instead, "The Mountain Between Us" is a high-altitude soap opera, woozy with overly telegraphed peril and determined to make the audience root for a couple who clearly aren't meant for each other and played by actors who deserve a generous C-minus in chemistry. In the film's production notes, Elba—considered dreamboat material by his ...
The Mountain Between Us
Rated: 2/4 Mar 17, 2022 Full Review Lauren Bradshaw Fangirl Freakout The Mountain Between Us is an enthralling story from start to finish, one even more captivating to watch thanks to the ...
The Mountain Between Us
Beautiful people, beautiful scenery. It's hard to screw that up. But they really did. Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jul 12, 2020. Much like the ill-fated flight that opens the film, The ...
'The Mountain Between Us' review
Far from sophisticated, but filled with eye-popping locations and an eye-popping pair of performers who, in their best scenes, exude an almost Capra-esque whimsy in the face of grave danger, this ...
The Mountain Between Us Review
The Mountain Between Us posits itself genre-wise as a survival romance, but the film is definitely more invested in the second half of that label than the first. To put it bluntly, for a story ...
The Mountain Between Us (2017)
The Mountain Between Us: Directed by Hany Abu-Assad. With Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Beau Bridges, Dermot Mulroney. Stranded after a tragic plane crash, two strangers must forge a connection to survive the extreme elements of a remote snow-covered mountain. When they realize help is not coming, they embark on a perilous journey across the wilderness.
Review: Love in a Cold Climate in 'The Mountain Between Us'
By Jeannette Catsoulis. Oct. 5, 2017. To watch the magnetic Idris Elba trudge through a monumental dud like "The Mountain Between Us" is almost physically painful. Paired with an aloof Kate ...
The Mountain Between Us Review
The Mountain Between Us has a surprisingly effective and engaging first half, filled with fun and tense survival sequences with Idris Elba and Kate Winslet. But that just makes it even more ...
Toronto Film Review: 'The Mountain Between Us'
Toronto Film Review: 'The Mountain Between Us'. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala), Sept. 9, 2017. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 104 MIN. Production: A Twentieth Century Fox release ...
The Mountain Between Us
The Mountain Between Us isn't a bad movie, overall. The scenery's gorgeous, the two leads are enormously appealing, and nothing about the dialogue or visual style particularly grates. This is an easy picture to watch… and to root for, in a way, because it's so rarely overbearing. But it's only ever mildly engaging.
The Mountain Between Us Movie Review
Parents need to know that The Mountain Between Us, based on Charles Martin's novel of the same name, tells the story of two strangers (Idris Elba and Kate Winslet) stuck in the snowy wilderness after a tragic plane crash.Expect scenes of mountain trek peril, but there's no graphic violence. (Spoiler alert!) Post-plane-crash injuries are shown, there's some danger to a dog, and one character's ...
The Mountain Between Us (2017)
The Mountain Between Us is a beautiful spectacle of what the world can provide in terms of a stage, certainly blowing my mind on the visuals. Alongside this majestic scenery comes some quality acting and a hooking factor in the form of the dog. Yet these tools alone couldn't save this movie from being semi-dull.
The Mountain Between Us Review
Though marketed more as a survival thriller, The Mountain Between Us is in actuality a blending of two different genres, as it is an adaptation of Charles Martin's romance novel of the same name. It attempts to tell a story of blossoming love between two strangers as they endure a trying ordeal with each other, but unfortunately, it comes up short of achieving those goals.
The Mountain Between Us Review
The Mountain Between Us is an old-fashioned movie star vehicle for Idris Elba and Kate Winslet that doesn't really ever go anywhere. When The Mountain Between Us was first pitched, it must've ...
The Mountain Between Us (film)
The Mountain Between Us is a 2017 American survival drama film [3] directed by Hany Abu-Assad and written by Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe, based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Charles Martin. [4] [5] It stars Idris Elba and Kate Winslet as a surgeon and a journalist, respectively, who survive a plane crash, with a dog, and are stranded in the High Uintas Wilderness with injuries and ...
Review: The Mountain Between Us
The Mountain Between Us is a throwback to one of those old Hollywood moonshots of thorny romance and life-or-death adventure, a recombinant version of Strange Cargo and Call of the Wild. And for a while, mainly around its middle stretch, Hany Abu-Assad's film is notable for the way it fixates on its characters' rush toward survival, homing ...
The Mountain Between Us Review
The Mountain Between Us Review. When their small plane crashes into Utah's mountainous wilderness, strangers Alex (Kate Winslet) and Ben (Idris Elba) have to work together to survive. But, as ...
The Mountain Between Us
Adapted from Charles Martin's 2010 best-selling novel, The Mountain Between Us features a lovely cast in absurd, perilous, and romantic conditions.Imagine the possibilities of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba stranded after a plane crash in the Rockies, forced to fight the cold and starvation with nothing more than their bickering to occupy them, and their bodies to keep them warm at night.
The Mountain Between Us Review: Falling for Idris Elba
It's all about the relationship, and when Idris Elba plays one-half of that relationship, it's pretty easy to get on board. Rating: B. *Out of all the elements of this movie, this one strained ...
'The Mountain Between Us' With Idris Elba & Kate Winslet [Review]
In Charles Martin's novel "The Mountain Between Us" and in director Hany Abu-Assad's new big screen adaptation of the work, the mountain is as literal as it is metaphorical.Martin's story begins with a twin-engine charter plane crashing in the High Uintas Wilderness in Utah, killing the pilot and leaving two strangers stranded in the middle of nowhere, cut off from civilization and ...
The Mountain Between Us
Movie Review. As a general rule, you should never, ... Then Alex and Ben have spontaneous, surprisingly explicit sex for a PG-13 movie. From there, The Mountain Between Us feels less like a survival story and more like a Nicholas Sparks movie (albeit one where no one dies in the end). Toss in quite a bit of profanity—including quite a few ...
Movie Review: The Mountain Between Us (2017)
The heated romantic passion of Charles Martin's best-selling romance novel "The Mountain Between Us," turns lukewarm in its cinematic version of the same name that stars Kate Winslet ("Collateral Beauty") and Idris Elba ("The Dark Tower") as a couple of strangers stranded in the frigid high-mountain snow of the Rocky Mountains. Alex Martin (an excellent Winslet), is a ...
The Mountain Between Us
A romance novel that was adapted into a movie and pitched as not a survival movie....Here's my review of THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US!See more videos by Jeremy he...

The Mountain Between Us

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