Red Sparrow is a 2018 spy-thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence who worked with Jennifer Lawrence (the star here) on a couple of the Hunger Games movies, but this is a very different beast. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova (in, it has to be said, a not entirely convincing Russian accent), and Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenarts and Charlotte Rampling star as the film's secondary characters. This one is a pretty big departure from what Lawrence has done in the past, although it has to be said that she's making some pretty bold career choices. I'm not the first one to say that, and for a good reason: it's true. After last year's Mother! it appeared as if she was trying purposefully trying to appear in more "mature" films, and believe me, it doesn't get much more mature than Red Sparrow. The film plays out like one of those schlocky exploitation from the seventies, in that there's sexual violence, sex, violence, torture, and all manner o
The Mountain Between Us is a 2017 survival-romance film starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. It was directed by Hany Abu-Assad and written by Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe. The story is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Martin about a doctor and a photojournalist who, when their flight is cancelled, take a non-commercial flight to their destination, as they both happen to be going to the same place. However, the pilot has a stroke during the journey causing their plane to crash-land on a snowy mountain, then the two professionals have to figure out how to get off the mountain.
So, this film is incredibly predictable. From the moment it begins, you can pretty much figure out exactly how the plot will unfold. It starts off with both Idris Elba and Kate Winslet talking (and being unreasonably rude to) a member of airport staff, which immediately made me dislike them. Then, after they crash, they start to shout and insult each other, then make up, then try to escape from the mountain, and that formula is repeated until the two eventually fall in love. The problem is, it's very difficult to care about people this mean-spirited.
There's a moment in which Kate Winslet's character tells a story about taking pictures of deceased guerilla fighters to further her career at the Guardian, and because of her shame she can no longer take pictures. I think the writers want us to feel sorry for her, but how are we supposed to feel sorry for a character who exploits death? There are other moments in the film in which her character does equally repugnant things, but I can't write about them here because it'll spoil the plot.
Because of that predictability (of course, because we need to find out whether the two end up in a relationship, we need them to survive), the film has no sense of threat. Despite Idris Elba and Kate Winslet being perfectly fine in their roles, it becomes hard to care about any of the things that happen. The main people at fault here are the writers. Once the two get off the mountain, there's a will-they-won't-they plotline which is incredibly cheesy and pretty boring. The script in this section becomes even worse. The final scene in the film is one that everybody has scene at least once, and it just doesn't work.
The cinematography in the film is pretty good, and as I said Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are perfectly good in the central roles. The story itself is actually quite average, and that's the reason we know exactly what will happen. The best thing I can say about this is that there are moments in the film which are very nice to look at.
Overall, The Mountain Between Us is an incredibly unremarkable film with fairly good performances, an extremely predictable but serviceable plot, but one that will likely be forgotten about by most people as soon as it leaves the cinema.
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