Here we have a rather surprising low-budget thriller from Scotland. Its not surprising in content - because the bulk of it all consists of fairly well known things- but it does manage to keep a plot going from one beginning to another end without being predictable, boring or unreasonably unrealistic. What more could you ask from a movie about people chasing each other? Given the conditions, you have to say that it is a good film.
It starts in one place and ends in another. Within the plot there is a leap that a film like this usually suffers from. I know some have seen the change of perspective midway as the film's flaw but I think the second half of the film really gets to the real issue: What is a human life really worth?
We initially meet five mountaineers in the Scottish Highlands. The film is very wise to invite the audience to a completely credible group of professional daredevils; the acting is naturalistic, and gives the film an air of the documentary. They seem to have full control.
However, all that jolly climbing is soon interrupted by a curious, eerie discovery: Trapped in a box under the earth, someone has trapped a little girl. (How they find her, I will not disclose, and I recommend all not to see the trailer that spoils the fun). She is dirty and frightened and talking in an Eastern European language and, without being able to do anything but accept the situation, they take her away and she follows for the same reason.
I will not reveal what happens next, but we can say so much that the girl has not been left there to die. And if you take a buried little girl who does not seem to belong here, someone will definitely like to have her back. Money and guns are involved.
The interesting thing about the film's structure is that it begins as a rather primitive chase movie in the style of Deliverance, and then switches gear and becomes a high tech action-thriller, letting new characters into the plot. They're on the other side of the conflict, and know nothing about the mountaineers or that the girl is with them. But they bring, I believe, a crucial piece to the film's puzzle. Both our heroes and villains treat life with a sensibility of carelessness, but this time survival might be worth something.
For instance, the second half of the film has got a great set of sequences where two people have a conversation in a bar where they are constantly staring into each others eyes. The conversation is slow and concentrated, and every word is important: The topic of the little chat is about the importance of being a smart consumer. It doesn't matter if you haggle about human life or a piece of meat to barbecue, you should not be fooled by bad salesmen.
And in the end, the fact remains that many people are dead, but a key individual is still living. The film does not explain what that might mean, yet it ends with a poetic streak that I found strangely beautiful. These kinds of movies usually called survival movies. This is the first survival film I have seen where the point seem to be everyone that died
It starts in one place and ends in another. Within the plot there is a leap that a film like this usually suffers from. I know some have seen the change of perspective midway as the film's flaw but I think the second half of the film really gets to the real issue: What is a human life really worth?
We initially meet five mountaineers in the Scottish Highlands. The film is very wise to invite the audience to a completely credible group of professional daredevils; the acting is naturalistic, and gives the film an air of the documentary. They seem to have full control.
However, all that jolly climbing is soon interrupted by a curious, eerie discovery: Trapped in a box under the earth, someone has trapped a little girl. (How they find her, I will not disclose, and I recommend all not to see the trailer that spoils the fun). She is dirty and frightened and talking in an Eastern European language and, without being able to do anything but accept the situation, they take her away and she follows for the same reason.
I will not reveal what happens next, but we can say so much that the girl has not been left there to die. And if you take a buried little girl who does not seem to belong here, someone will definitely like to have her back. Money and guns are involved.
The interesting thing about the film's structure is that it begins as a rather primitive chase movie in the style of Deliverance, and then switches gear and becomes a high tech action-thriller, letting new characters into the plot. They're on the other side of the conflict, and know nothing about the mountaineers or that the girl is with them. But they bring, I believe, a crucial piece to the film's puzzle. Both our heroes and villains treat life with a sensibility of carelessness, but this time survival might be worth something.
For instance, the second half of the film has got a great set of sequences where two people have a conversation in a bar where they are constantly staring into each others eyes. The conversation is slow and concentrated, and every word is important: The topic of the little chat is about the importance of being a smart consumer. It doesn't matter if you haggle about human life or a piece of meat to barbecue, you should not be fooled by bad salesmen.
And in the end, the fact remains that many people are dead, but a key individual is still living. The film does not explain what that might mean, yet it ends with a poetic streak that I found strangely beautiful. These kinds of movies usually called survival movies. This is the first survival film I have seen where the point seem to be everyone that died