I'd say this film was fine. Just fine, but that's averaging out between some bits which were hard to hang with and some which I felt were more than meets the eye.
Fine may be better than most other reviews are giving it, but I stand by it.
This was *fine*, and it's quite short. If you're already feeling relaxed, and you have an hour and a half with no competing options, then put on some popcorn and give it a chance.
Firstly, the technical stuff; Writing was utilitarian but not objectionable, direction was perfectly competent if not especially distinguished (I don't get what all the contempt is over, there), and the cinematography is sweeping and just lovely. Also, the use of practical effects over CGI in one very important scene made a huge difference to how in the moment with the character I ultimately stayed, and so I think the director made a great call on that front.
Now, for the *story* review (because, let's be honest, this is where 99% of the fur has flown in these many, many other, very *bad* reviews, so I want to give it the detail it deserves). [Warning: Significant Spoilers Ahead] So, the setup; Fledgeling National Park -staffer Wendy is 15(?) and kind of a not-so- hot mess, in fact she's barely holding down this job - apparently her *first* job - so naturally her boss hasn't bothered advancing her training beyond "host". And between the hopelessness, the inexperience, and Wendy also being saddled with the triple-whammy of what looks an awful lot like clinical Anxiety...well, it's not terribly surprising when we learn that Wendy's friends don't really have a lot of faith in her, competence-wise.
It's hard to hate them for this, but when Wendy learns of their lack of respect for her, it equally relatably stings - especially as it was only her offering to do something nice for one of those friends which brings this hard home truth into the daylight. And in the first of what will inevitably turn out to be a veritable cascade of poor decisions, Wendy responds - as many, even much more well-adjusted kids her age would - to this ego injury with an act of overcompensatory bravado.
Thus dropping herself in well and truly over her head when what would have been a simple trail-trip for a more experienced or knowledgeable hiker instead winds up with her lost and stranded in the feral backcountry, with night coming on, amidst cool temps and high bear alerts... Oh, and did we mention the dead body she happens across and makes the mistake of reporting, which means that now she is required by her boss - and higher authorities, besides - to babysit said potential crime-scene all night, with no phone, no shelter, no food...in fact the only thing she does have in surplus is mental health challenges?
The film honestly plays out for most of that night like a psychological thriller, with poor Wendy's situation going from bad to worse as she (in sequence); contaminates the scene: contaminates the scene worse: fails to convincingly project authority on the security side of her duties: fails at the most basic risk/threat analysis when confronted with obvious large-predator spoor: contaminates the scene worse: builds an uncontained fire atop a site blanketed with dead leaves, using her sole remaining Fire Safety Guide for kindling without giving it a quick revision first: wastes her only weapon: wastes her only potable *water*:, yeets her only hope for outside communication into the wild blue yonder.... And, yeah, it keeps going. And it is impossible to keep from getting frustrated with her, because once the bad choices start, they only seem to gather speed. No, it's not an unrealistic film about a rock-dumb protagonist, as some other reviews have claimed; it is instead, an uncomfortably realistic film about a woefully underprepared individual in extremely challenging circumstances rapidly losing logic to panic-mode, with the result that they go from "disorganised, intimidated and fragile" to "full-blown psychiatric meltdown" painfully swiftly, with predictable results for their higher functions and survival instincts.
So, it's frustrating. It's *excruciating*. It's all too easy to sympathise with Wendy's friends' lack of respect for her resilience or competance, watching how she fares. But this is the story we're being told; about Wendy, and how things fell apart, and she fell apart with them, and how those two became a vicious cycle which very *nearly* got her killed by her own panicked foolhardiness. Because those stories need telling, too, I guess. Not everyone magically becomes a hero under pressure. Not everyone is going to survive the speculative collapse of society. Some people will inevitably fold like deckchairs when external adversity shows up, and just because it's not the story we've been taught to normalise and to want to be fed, doesn't mean that that person's story isn't still worth telling. I think far more people these days would respond closer to Wendy than to Bear Grylls' than would ever like to have to be honest with themselves about that fact.
Wendy *does* get a little bit of a crucible moment, right as her long, dark literal night of the figurative soul drags miserably toward its end, where she does appear to have made some level of breakthrough.
Of course, even after having overcome the demons of her own roiling consciousness, she's still in the middle of nowhere, out of water and having - unfortunately in addition to some reasonably healthy exertion, as well as being up for most of the night - last eaten somewhere around 18 or so hours ago. So all of yesterday's, you know, legitimate *physical* dangers still remain to be contended with (with the exception of death by exposure) - only with the difficulty level ramped up, now, on account of said highkey caloric deficiency leading to weakness and loss of coordination. So naturally it's right about now that the filmmakers decide to bring *those* threats into the forefront, and when Wendy survives them long enough for the cavalry to finally arrive on the scene, it's still only about 15% survival-fueled in-the-moment -type badassery to something like 75% dumb luck/divine clemency.
But sometimes life is *genuinely* like that. Evidently, a lot of people believe that that's not terribly entertaining, but I don't know; while I spent my fair share of time hand-wringing and screen-shouting over Wendy's bald helplessness throughout the first part of the story, I was really pulling for her by the end, there. And minor though her breakthroughs may have been, they were still breakthroughs and they were still *hers*, and yeah, in the end, I think I do have to come down on the side of, "this is a story we don't often get shown, but maybe that's not actually a great thing."
We can't all be cool, calm and collected when things go suddenly pear-shaped on a genuinely existential level. It's not just that we can't all be A Hero; we can't even all be *The* Hero.
If you're a forewarned is forearmed sort of viewer, then after all this, you might want to consider giving this film, and it's blundering but very human protagonist, a chance. She might just surprise you.
I probably won't watch it again, but I ain't mad at it.
Firstly, the technical stuff; Writing was utilitarian but not objectionable, direction was perfectly competent if not especially distinguished (I don't get what all the contempt is over, there), and the cinematography is sweeping and just lovely. Also, the use of practical effects over CGI in one very important scene made a huge difference to how in the moment with the character I ultimately stayed, and so I think the director made a great call on that front.
Now, for the *story* review (because, let's be honest, this is where 99% of the fur has flown in these many, many other, very *bad* reviews, so I want to give it the detail it deserves). [Warning: Significant Spoilers Ahead] So, the setup; Fledgeling National Park -staffer Wendy is 15(?) and kind of a not-so- hot mess, in fact she's barely holding down this job - apparently her *first* job - so naturally her boss hasn't bothered advancing her training beyond "host". And between the hopelessness, the inexperience, and Wendy also being saddled with the triple-whammy of what looks an awful lot like clinical Anxiety...well, it's not terribly surprising when we learn that Wendy's friends don't really have a lot of faith in her, competence-wise.
It's hard to hate them for this, but when Wendy learns of their lack of respect for her, it equally relatably stings - especially as it was only her offering to do something nice for one of those friends which brings this hard home truth into the daylight. And in the first of what will inevitably turn out to be a veritable cascade of poor decisions, Wendy responds - as many, even much more well-adjusted kids her age would - to this ego injury with an act of overcompensatory bravado.
Thus dropping herself in well and truly over her head when what would have been a simple trail-trip for a more experienced or knowledgeable hiker instead winds up with her lost and stranded in the feral backcountry, with night coming on, amidst cool temps and high bear alerts... Oh, and did we mention the dead body she happens across and makes the mistake of reporting, which means that now she is required by her boss - and higher authorities, besides - to babysit said potential crime-scene all night, with no phone, no shelter, no food...in fact the only thing she does have in surplus is mental health challenges?
The film honestly plays out for most of that night like a psychological thriller, with poor Wendy's situation going from bad to worse as she (in sequence); contaminates the scene: contaminates the scene worse: fails to convincingly project authority on the security side of her duties: fails at the most basic risk/threat analysis when confronted with obvious large-predator spoor: contaminates the scene worse: builds an uncontained fire atop a site blanketed with dead leaves, using her sole remaining Fire Safety Guide for kindling without giving it a quick revision first: wastes her only weapon: wastes her only potable *water*:, yeets her only hope for outside communication into the wild blue yonder.... And, yeah, it keeps going. And it is impossible to keep from getting frustrated with her, because once the bad choices start, they only seem to gather speed. No, it's not an unrealistic film about a rock-dumb protagonist, as some other reviews have claimed; it is instead, an uncomfortably realistic film about a woefully underprepared individual in extremely challenging circumstances rapidly losing logic to panic-mode, with the result that they go from "disorganised, intimidated and fragile" to "full-blown psychiatric meltdown" painfully swiftly, with predictable results for their higher functions and survival instincts.
So, it's frustrating. It's *excruciating*. It's all too easy to sympathise with Wendy's friends' lack of respect for her resilience or competance, watching how she fares. But this is the story we're being told; about Wendy, and how things fell apart, and she fell apart with them, and how those two became a vicious cycle which very *nearly* got her killed by her own panicked foolhardiness. Because those stories need telling, too, I guess. Not everyone magically becomes a hero under pressure. Not everyone is going to survive the speculative collapse of society. Some people will inevitably fold like deckchairs when external adversity shows up, and just because it's not the story we've been taught to normalise and to want to be fed, doesn't mean that that person's story isn't still worth telling. I think far more people these days would respond closer to Wendy than to Bear Grylls' than would ever like to have to be honest with themselves about that fact.
Wendy *does* get a little bit of a crucible moment, right as her long, dark literal night of the figurative soul drags miserably toward its end, where she does appear to have made some level of breakthrough.
Of course, even after having overcome the demons of her own roiling consciousness, she's still in the middle of nowhere, out of water and having - unfortunately in addition to some reasonably healthy exertion, as well as being up for most of the night - last eaten somewhere around 18 or so hours ago. So all of yesterday's, you know, legitimate *physical* dangers still remain to be contended with (with the exception of death by exposure) - only with the difficulty level ramped up, now, on account of said highkey caloric deficiency leading to weakness and loss of coordination. So naturally it's right about now that the filmmakers decide to bring *those* threats into the forefront, and when Wendy survives them long enough for the cavalry to finally arrive on the scene, it's still only about 15% survival-fueled in-the-moment -type badassery to something like 75% dumb luck/divine clemency.
But sometimes life is *genuinely* like that. Evidently, a lot of people believe that that's not terribly entertaining, but I don't know; while I spent my fair share of time hand-wringing and screen-shouting over Wendy's bald helplessness throughout the first part of the story, I was really pulling for her by the end, there. And minor though her breakthroughs may have been, they were still breakthroughs and they were still *hers*, and yeah, in the end, I think I do have to come down on the side of, "this is a story we don't often get shown, but maybe that's not actually a great thing."
We can't all be cool, calm and collected when things go suddenly pear-shaped on a genuinely existential level. It's not just that we can't all be A Hero; we can't even all be *The* Hero.
If you're a forewarned is forearmed sort of viewer, then after all this, you might want to consider giving this film, and it's blundering but very human protagonist, a chance. She might just surprise you.
I probably won't watch it again, but I ain't mad at it.