Everest (****)

For all the notoriety and esteem surrounding Mount Everest, it was a surprise to see in the beginning preface to the film that nearly 1 in 4 people who attempt to climb the mountain perish. The story we witness was (up until this past year) the worst climbing accident in Everest's history, with 8 people losing their lives due to circumstances that may or may not have been preventable. The movie doesn't explore this idea, one of many that seems pushed to the side. What we have instead is a document of events as they unfolded and little more than the tragedy of death to mull over once the credits begin to roll.

The accident, the climb that inspired John Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" (perhaps you read it), unfolded like any typical season. It was May of 1996. The mountain saw two competitive organizations leading paying customers to the top: Adventure Consultants led by Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), and Mountain Madness led by Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal). With an influx of traffic that quite literally led to lines of people waiting to proceed up the slope, the two men decide to join forces and summit with aided forces and supplies.

If you've seen the trailer, you realize the tragedy that unfolds, and a vicious storm hits the mountain while half of the group still remains in the "death zone" (that area of mountain over 20,000 feet where oxygen is so low that it's truly a battle to survive in the best of conditions). Radio communication with the base camp below remains in play, and yet as one character says, 'they might as well be on the moon' with the slim chances that rescue attempts offer.

I read that the film originally focused on Rob Hall's story, a man who tragically died near the summit while his wife was expecting their first child in New Zealand. There are very heartbreaking moments where the two of them speak to each other in his final moments through radio, all the more saddening knowing these conversations most likely happened. The film instead ventures down a more unstructured narrative, as we jump around seeing drama unfold from all members of the climbing expedition. Perhaps I was losing focus, or perhaps there wasn't enough time spent with character introductions, but with the majority of these people wearing goggles, masks, and hoods, it became nearly impossible to distinguish characters, and even more confusing when we find out certain people have died in front of our eyes without our knowledge.

The film is well-photographed and the 3D does occasionally add to the story. I ultimately think the movie would have been more effective had it honed in the story to fewer characters, as gripping as the large ensemble cast is. It's a marvelous movie to look at, but I think the story could have functioned even better as a documentary or just as a book. In the end, I'm not planning on becoming a mountaineer, and this movie did nothing to help change my mind.

(Awards potential: Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Makeup)