I really wanted this to be great, despite knowing it could go either way. Unfortunately, it went the wrong way and never fully corrected its trajectory. The crash scene prepared me for this let down, as I've experienced more turbulence on flights I've been on (which did not crash into a mountain). Are they sure they didn't crash into a cloud instead of a mountain?
Okay, there will be spoilers from here on out...I'm pretty sure Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba) didn't let out so much as a yelp, as he and Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) watched the tail of the plane break off and braced themselves while putting their seat belts back on. Though, in hindsight, I'm less surprised by the lack of a more natural reaction to being in the remaining half of a tiny plane plummeting into mountains. Emotions were lacking throughout the film, and this is what made the film feel so lacking and like the mountain was between the characters and the audience!
Winslet is an Academy Award winner, and Elba a Golden Globe winner. They can pull off emotions, no question. So one can only conclude the lack of emotion on the actual mountain was a director's call, and a bad one. How does Alex not shed one tear from pain, exhaustion, or missing her wedding? Ben was clearly still dealing with some pain from his past, and maybe he's not the emotional type. But c'mon! At the very least there should have been a scream, or any type of uncontrollable vocal response, during the plane crash and some watering of the eyes when he reveals the story behind his wife leaving him. She passed away from a brain tumor, which is even more tragic given Ben is a neurosurgeon and was unable to save his wife. I don't recall this revelation bringing about one drop of tears from Ben or Alex.
And then to top it off, after this revelation is induced by Ben catching Alex invading his privacy by listening to a recording his wife left him years ago about leaving him (dying), it leads to the two kissing and making love. This felt extremely forced, yet predictable, and no amount of clips from prior scenes could emotionally draw me into this forced "falling in love." This makes the ending especially difficult to watch, as the post-rescued scenes took on a longer than expected portion of the film following both of them as they continue on with their lives (recall Alex was on her way to her wedding the day of the plane crash). We are forced to watch them go separate ways and then admit to themselves they were in love, and finally we get tears from Alex. But it's much too late, because the emotional tie to the characters, and between the characters, were never genuinely developed. And Ben's one tear shed in the film at the hospital after seeing Alex was with her fiance, was too little too late.
Additionally, I found it hard to like Alex's character. Ben was selfless to a fault, but some of it could be explained by him being a doctor and having a natural affinity towards caring for others (maybe). On the other hand, Alex's character was just as selfish as Ben tells her she is at one point in the film. Her refusal to be rational and stay in place as Ben suggested, and her continually making Ben go look for the dog, led to Ben permanently damaging his hands and getting his leg caught in a bear trap. By the end of the film Ben can't run and could no longer be a neurosurgeon! And as for Alex, oh she healed from the ONE leg injury she received from the plane crash (thanks to Ben)! Even the dog healed from being attacked by a cougar trying to protect Alex (also thanks to Dr. Bass' healing hands).
Speaking of the cougar, while the obstacles were tough to watch, they were way too easy to overcome. Maybe I missed the part of the storyline that explains how Alex was able to shoot the cougar perfectly in the eye from a laying position with a flare gun. Ben managed to get from a cabin back to Alex just in time to save her from the freezing water she fell into. And thank goodness for the dog, because he led them to the abandoned cabin and ultimately to other people later in the film. He was able to do this, when he was running around the mountain not on a leash in more than a few feet of snow, mind you.
A bit more emotion, on the mountain, and seeing them struggle a bit more to overcome challenges, would have gone a long way! Unfortunately, this is missing from the film, and it brings the film down substantially.
6/10