AVATAR : FIRE AND ASH : Tuesday 23rd December 2025

I saw the M Rated 'AVATAR : FIRE AND ASH' earlier this week, and this American epic Sci-Fi film is Co-Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Edited by James Cameron, and is the sequel to 2022's 'Avatar: The Way of Water'. This is the third instalment in the Avatar film series, which began with 'Avatar' in 2009, with those first two films grossing a total US$5.267B off the back of a combined production budget of US$587M. James Cameron made his feature film debut with 'Piranha II : The Spawning' in in 1982 which he would follow up with 'Terminator' in 1984, 'Aliens' in 1986, 'The Abyss' in 1989, 'Terminator 2 : Judgement Day' in 1992, 'True Lies' in 1994, and 'Titanic' 1997 before embarking on this monolithic film franchise. The film was released worldwide last week, with two additional sequels, 'Avatar 4' and 'Avatar 5', in various stages of production and scheduled to be released in 2029 and 2031, respectively. With a production budget of US$400M+ the film has so far recouped US$545M at the global Box Office, has garnered generally favourable critical reviews and has so far won thirteen awards and been nominated a further thirty-three times from around the awards and festival circuit.

A year after settling in with the Metkayina clan, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldana) family grapples with grief after their first son and oldest child Neteyam's (Jamie Flatters) death in battle in the previous film. Neytiri has developed a strong disliking and a mistrust toward humans. When a fleet of flying merchant ships arrive, the Wind Traders led by Peylak (David Thewlis), Jake and Neytiri decide Spider (Jack Champion) the teenage human son of Colonel Miles Quaritch who was formerly rescued from Quaritch by Jake and Neytiri, and who have been raising him like one of their own, must leave the Metkayina, but that the family will accompany him on the trip to return him to the humans. 

After departing the Metkayina clan, the Wind Traders convoy is ambushed by the Mangkwan, an aggressive Na'vi tribe who reject Eywa (the divine, globally connected consciousness of Pandora, a vast biological network linking all life, worshipped by the Na'vi as the Great Mother). Led by their spiritual leader Varang (Oona Chaplin), the Mangkwan set fire to the ships, looting them and killing survivors. The family becomes separated and are chased down by the Mangkwan. 

Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Corporal Lyle Wainfleet (Matt Gerald) find Jake, and they reluctantly work together to find the children. Spider's oxygen mask runs out of power, and he collapses from asphyxiation. Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) connects her queue to the ground and goes into a trance. After his body is infused with mycelia, Spider later wakens with the ability to breathe Pandora's atmosphere unaided.

Eventually, the children are trapped by the Mangkwan. Quaritch and Jake arrive, and Quaritch ventures to the Mangkwan encampment and teaches Varang how to use guns and flamethrowers. Kiri commands the flora to kill their guards, enabling her family's escape. Kiri learns that she was born of Eywa, but is blocked from connecting with her. Quaritch travels to the Mangkwan's village, bringing them plentiful supplies of firearms and flamethrowers. He convinces them to form an alliance, and begins a relationship with Varang.

Kiri helps Spider bond with the wildlife, but the two are ambushed and Spider is taken by Quaritch. Quaritch invades the Metkayina village with the Mangkwan, demanding Jake. Jake surrenders himself to avoid war, and he and Spider are taken to the RDA (Resources Development Administration) base, Bridgehead City, where the Mangkwan now reside. In captivity, Spider is subjected to many tests, and after examining Spider, Dr. Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) and Dr. Max Patel (Dileep Rao) discover the mycelia organism inside his body, which they realise could be reverse engineered to allow every human to breathe on Pandora. Spider is also growing a neural queue on his head, allowing him to connect to Pandoran fauna just like the Na'vi do. Meanwhile, Jake is chained, locked up and called out as a traitor by the people of Bridgehead City. 

Looking for Payakan (a young bull Tulkun [large highly intelligent marine whale-like species native to the oceans of Pandora] that has been labeled as an outcast by not only the Metkayina clan, but the larger Tulkun community also). Lo'ak (Britain Dalton) the second son of Jake and Neytiri, is attacked by a group of giant squid, but he is rescued by Tulkun whales. Hundreds of Tulkun begin to congregate for an annual mating event, which could bring substantial profit when hunted for their amrita (a naturally occurring substance in the creature's brains which has the medical power to stop human ageing). RDA biologist Dr. Ian Garvin (Jemaine Clement) opposes the plans, but his advice is ignored.

With Jake scheduled to be executed at 6:00am the next morning by firing squad, Neytiri infiltrates the base, and Ian steals a giant bulldozer to free Jake. Spider escapes the RDA laboratories, and knowing they cannot afford to kill him, acts as a human shield to protect the pair as they make their escape. After fleeing to safety, Jake and Neytiri argue over Spider's liability to the potential human conquest of Pandora. Jake takes Spider into the forest and readies to kill Spider by slitting his throat, but stops at the last second. Neytiri who initially wanted to abandon Spider is now remorseful, and she finally accepts Spider into her family.

Back at the Metkayina village, the Tulkun council hear Jake's warning of an incoming massacre, but decide not to change their pacifist ways. Lo'ak brings Payakan and Tan'ok, the disfigured sole survivor of a human attack on Payakan's pod, and the Tulkun elders reconsider their stance. Jake re-bonds with the apex aerial predator Toruk and rallies the Na'vi clans to battle. 

The next day, as the RDA fleet arrives for the hunt, the Tulkun and Na'vi ambush them. The Mangkwan and Quaritch suddenly attack, inflicting heavy casualties, including Rotxo (Duane Evans Jnr.). Metkayina spiritual leader Ronal (Kate Winslet) is mortally wounded and dies in childbirth, with Neytiri taking her baby, Pril and vowing to take care of the newborn infant, but she is captured and taken to the RDA flagship. 

Kiri unlocks her ability to communicate with Eywa and asks for help. The Pandoran wildlife attacks the rest of the RDA forces. Varang tries to kill Neytiri, but she is rescued by Kiri, leading her to flee. Jake's Toruk destroys the RDA flagship as it is sucked up into a magnetic flux. Jake and Quaritch are thrown into the flux and fight each other, with Spider following. Spider shoots Quaritch with an arrow into his arm, but he falls off a floating rock, only for Quaritch to catch him. Jake reluctantly pulls them both up, and Neytiri and her children arrive. Outnumbered, clearly at a disadvantage and knackered from his intense fight with Jake, Quaritch leaps off the rock, presumably to his death.

After the battle, Spider and the Metkayina clan members connect to the underwater spirit trees, where he meets all the deceased Na'vi. Kiri introduces Spider to her mother, Grace (Sigourney Weaver), and they initiate him into the Na'vi people. 

James Cameron with 'Avatar : Fire and Ash' has once again solidified his place as a master storyteller with his Pandoran world building, the character arcs, and the sheer spectacle of Pandora's flora and fauna. This is a film that has to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and in glorious 3D to really appreciate the quality of the technical workmanship that went into rendering the amazing imagery presented on screen, and for that Cameron can't be faulted. That said, the plot is really more of the same as seen in the first two instalments, and the dialogue is at times clunky and repetitive (I lost count of the number of times 'you got this' and 'we can do this' popped out of a characters mouth!). As for the performances, Oona Chaplin's Varang adds a new dimension to Pandora's darker side, ably aided and abetted by Stephen Lang's Quaritch, with many of the returning Actor's anchored more convincingly by the advances in motion capture technology in the sixteen years since the first film hit our movie theatres. At the longest runtime of the series so far at three hours and seventeen minutes, the immersion in the films spectacle did not leave me wanting, and the battle sequences and fight scenes are expertly staged and rendered to maintain interest and propel the story along. Also starring Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Edie Falco and Brendan Cowell. As an extra bonus see if you can spot the nods to Brian De Palma's 1987 film 'The Untouchables' and Mel Gibson's 1995 film 'Braveheart'. 

'Avatar : Fire and Ash' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

LEE : Monday 28th October 2024

I saw the M Rated 'LEE' earlier this week, and this British biographical drama film is Directed by Ellen Kuras in her feature film making debut, and is based on the 1985 biography 'The Lives of Lee Miller' written by Antony Penrose. It saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September 2023, was released in the UK in mid-September this year, in the US at the end of September, has so far grossed US$15.5M and has garnered generally positive reviews. The film was a passion project for lead Actress and Co-Producer Kate Winslet, who started developing the film, and in October 2015, the project was officially announced with Ellen Kuras on board to Direct from mid-2020.

The film opens up during the late 1930's, as Hitler rises to power in Germany. Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller (Kate Winslet) leaves her artistic circle of friends and life behind in France, including Solange d'Ayen (Marion Cotillard), Paul Eluard (Vincent Colombe) and Nusch Eluard (Noemie Merlant), and travels to London after falling madly, and very quickly, in love with the artist Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgard), to whom she describes herself as being done 'living a life as the model, the muse, the ingenue, and only good at drinking, having sex, and taking pictures'.

The two embark on a passionate relationship, just as war breaks out in Europe. Already a well regarded photographer, Lee lands a job completing assignments for British Vogue magazine, where she takes photographs of the London Blitz by bringing the chaos and urgency of those air raids to the pages of a popular and well regarded fashion publication. However, she is shocked by the restrictions placed on female photographers, and the attitude of Cecil Beaton (Samuel Barnett) a British fashion, portrait and war photographer also working for British Vogue magazine at the same time. 

As Hitler’s regime takes over large swathes of Europe, Lee becomes increasingly frustrated that her work is constrained by rules dictated by men. Determined to be where the action is, she defiantly pushes back against the establishment and, with the blessing of her friend and Vogue Editor Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough), Lee overcomes enormous obstacles to get herself to the frontline of World War II, by using the excuse that as an American citizen she is not governed by stuffy British rules about what women should and shouldn't do. 

And so sent over to Normandy following the D-Day invasion of 1944, Miller was tasked with reporting on what she was told was the newly-liberated town of Saint-Malo. She traveled there only to find that the town was still being heavily fought over. Miller's military accreditation as a female war correspondent did not allow her to enter an active combat zone, but rather than leave she decided to stay, and spent five days on the front lines photographing as much of the Battle of Saint-Malo as she could. Her photographs included the first recorded use of napalm. 

Compelled to document the truth, she turns her lens in the direction of suffering, and slowly begins to reveal the horrific loss of life due to Hitler’s diabolical crimes against the innocent victims of his regime. Miller teamed up with American photojournalist David Scherman (Andy Samberg), a Life magazine correspondent, on many assignments, including the liberation of Paris, the Battle of Alsace, and the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. 

Scherman's iconic photograph of Miller sitting in the bathtub in Adolf Hitler's private apartment in Munich, with the dried mud of that morning's visit to Dachau on her boots deliberately dirtying Hitler's bathmat was taken in the evening on 30th April 1945, coincidentally the same day that Hitler committed suicide with his wife Eva Braun in his bunker in Berlin. 

Upon returning to London after the end of the war, her husband returns home bearing the latest edition of Vogue magazine in which she expected to see her photographic account and accompanying article on the horrors of what she witnessed in Germany, but there are none. She hurries across to the Vogue offices to see Audrey Withers for an explanation but she is not there, and so tears through a filing cabinet seeking out the negatives of all the images she sent back, and promptly sets about ripping them up and cutting them up with scissors. Audrey appears and explains that she was not allowed to go to print with her images as they were way too graphic. Miller breaks down, and storms out. A short time later sat on the steps outside the Vogue offices Miller speaks of a profoundly traumatic experience when she was just seven years old when she was left home alone with an adult male friend of her family. She says that she has had to live with that shame, fear, and fury, for all of these years and has never told anyone as she was raised to keep secrets. 

Throughout the film we return to 1977 and Miller's home at Farley Farm House, in Chiddingly, East Sussex where she is being interviewed by Antony Penrose (Josh O'Connor) about her time as a WWII photojournalist and recounting the stories behind some of the most influential photographs of that era. Miller is somewhat distant of Penrose only opening up when he agrees to tell her something about his life. At the end Miller says it's your turn and it's then that we realise that Antony Penrose is in fact her son, who tells her that growing up she always was distant, disconnected from him, and almost an obstacle to her life. Miller remarks 'that's disappointing'. She pulls out a box containing a lock of his hair from his very first hair cut, the first book she ever read to him, and the first picture he ever painted. As the camera pulls away, Miller is not there, but spread all over the floor are Lee's photographs that Penrose only discovered after her mothers death in 1977, when he came across them in the attic of Farley Farm House by chance. 

Lee Miller carried out this dangerous work for the sake of the female readers of Vogue magazine, from whom the reality of war was largely kept hidden, and in the process yielded an indelible series of photographs which to this day continue to shape how we view these events.

'Lee' is a fairly detailed character study of this icon of WWII photojournalism that charts her story from the late 1930's through until just after the end of the war. It is at times harrowing, emotional, thought provoking and funny, and Kate Winslet shines in the role of the conflicted, yet thoroughly determined Lee Miller, and appears in almost every scene. Ellen Kuras as former Cinematographer turned Director has crafted a biopic of a woman you may not have previously heard of, but through this film her enduring legacy is granted a new life which she so rightly deserves. Alexander Skarsgard is miscast as Roland Penrose and his dialogue comes across as stilted and barely interested, and Josh O'Connor comes across as the floundering Prince Charles - the role he played in 'The Crown'. Andrea Riseborough, Marion Cotillard and Andy Samberg are all first rate in their roles. 

'Lee' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

AVATAR : THE WAY OF WATER - Tuesday 20th December 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'AVATAR : THE WAY OF WATER' earlier this week, and in case you've been hiding under a rock for the last decade or so, this American epic Sci-Fi film is the eagerly anticipated, long awaited, much hyped sequel to that groundbreaking record busting highest grossing film of all time, 'Avatar' from 2009. This film, as with the first instalment, is Directed, Co-Written, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by James Cameron. That first film in what is slated to be a five film series, grossed US$2,923B at the global Box Office off a production budget of US$237M and collected eighty-nine award wins and another 131 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit including three Academy Award wins, two BAFTA wins, ten Saturn Award wins, two Golden Globe wins and six Visual Effects Society Awards, amongst its total haul. 'The Way of Water' was originally muted for a 2014 release, however, the addition of three more sequels (to this one) and the necessity to develop new technology in order to film performance capture scenes underwater, a feat never before achieved, led to significant delays to allow the crew more time to work on the writing, preproduction, and visual effects. The film was released worldwide last week, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, in the Decembers of 2024, 2026 and 2028, though the latter two would depend on the commercial reception of 'The Way of Water' as 'Avatar 3' has already wrapped filming and was shot simultaneously in Wellington, New Zealand. With a production budget somewhere in the vicinity of US$350-400M it is one of the most expensive films of all time, and needs to recoup in the region of US$2B just to break even, having grossed at the time of writing this US$610M. Cameron's back catalogue of feature films include 'The Terminator', 'Aliens', 'The Abyss', 'Terminator 2 : Judgement Day', 'True Lies' and 'Titanic' so if major box office success is anything to go by, then this film should be a shoe-in. Time will tell.

Here then, set ten years after the events of the first film and in the mid-22nd Century, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) lives with his newfound Na'vi family on the planet of Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. Sully is now the chief of the Omaticaya clan of forest dwellers and he raises a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), which includes his sons, Neteyam (James Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), his biological daughter, Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), his adopted daughter, Kiri (born from Grace Augustine's inert Na'vi avatar, both played here by Sigourney Weaver), and a human boy named Spider (Jake Champion), the son of Colonel Miles Quaritch who was born on Pandora and was unable to be transported back to Earth in cryostasis due to him being an infant at the time of Quaritch death in the first film. The opening scenes see Sully and his family living a near prefect existence in the lush rainforests of Pandora. We then fast forward a year and Sully and Neytiri are enjoying a peaceful moment gazing up at the stars one night, when Sully sees a number of bright lights in the sky approaching Pandora, which he surmises can only mean one thing - the return of humans to rape and pillage their planet. And sure enough, the humans return and set about building a new operating base named Bridgehead City to prepare Pandora for human colonisation, as Earth is slowly dying. Among the new arrivals are recombinants, Na'vi avatars with the minds and memories of deceased RDA (Resource Development Administration) marines, with Quaritch's (Stephen Lang) recombinant as their commander.

Their arrival spurs Sully into instigating various guerilla attacks against the RDA supply routes. Quaritch and his recombinants conduct a counterinsurgency mission against Sully, capturing his children. Sully and Neytiri arrive and are able to free most of them, but Spider is taken by Quaritch, who recognises him as his son. After an unsuccessful interrogation attempt by General Frances Ardmore (Edie Falco) Quartich decides to spend time with him in order to gain Spider's trust and confidence and in turn, Spider teaches Quaritch about Na'vi culture and language. 

Aware of the danger Spider's knowledge of his whereabouts poses to their safety, Sully and his family seek exile for themselves from the Omaticaya and retreat to the Metkayina reef people clan located on hundreds of small islands on Pandora's eastern seaboard, where they are given safe haven, even though some tribesmen consider them to have 'demon blood' from their genetic human heritage, and ill equipped physically for a life in the ocean. The family learns the ways of the reef people and 'the way of water'. Kiri develops a spiritual bond with the sea and its creatures, and Lo'ak befriends Tsireya (Bailey Bass), the daughter of clan chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet).

Despite telling his children not to cause any upset amongst the Metkayina people, Lo'ak gets into a fight with Tsireya's brother Aonung (Filip Geljo). When Lo'ak returns to apologise at Sully's insistence, Aonung and his friends entice him to a trip beyond the reef and out into the open ocean to a place called the three brothers - a territory of a dangerous sea predator, and then promptly leave him stranded there with no idea on how to get back to the village. Lo'ak is saved by and befriends Payakan, a tulkun, a highly intelligent whale like species whom the Metkayina consider their spiritual family. Payakan takes Lo'ak back to his village and upon his return, Lo'ak takes the blame on himself, winning Aonung's friendship, but is told that Payakan is an outcast among his species, which Lo'ak vehemently denies. 

On a trip to the Metkayina's Spirit Tree, Kiri links with it to meet her mother Grace Augustine, but then suffers a violent seizure. She is healed by Ronal, but when Sully calls on Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) and Max Patel (Dileep Rao) for help, Quaritch is able to track them to the cluster of islands where the reef people live. Bringing Spider with him, he commandeers a whaling vessel which is hunting tulkuns to harvest their brain enzymes for creating an age halting remedy named amrita, that is worth US$80M for a flask sized vile back on Earth. 

Quaritch begins to brutally question the indigenous tribes about Sully's location, and when his line of questioning fails he torches the villages and orders the whaling crew to wantonly kill the tulkuns in order to draw Sully out from hiding. Lo'ak mentally links with Payakan and learns that he was cast out because he went against the ways of his species and attacked the whalers who killed his mother. 

The Metkayina are alerted of the tulkun killings, and Lo'ak takes off to warn Payakan, followed by his siblings, Tsireya, Aonung, and Rotxo (Duane Evans Jnr.). They find Payakan being chased by the whalers, and Lo'ak, Tsireya, and Tuk are captured by Quaritch and cuffed to a railing of the whaling ship. With their children in danger, Sully, Neytiri, and the Metkayina set out to confront the humans. Quaritch forces Sully to surrender, but seeing his soul brother in danger, Payakan attacks the whalers and their ship, triggering a fight that kills most of the crew and critically damages the vessel, ultimately resulting in it listing and then sinking. Neteyam rescues Lo'ak, Tsireya and Spider, but is fatally shot when diving overboard to make his retreat. Sully confronts Quaritch, who uses Kiri as a hostage holding her with a knife to the neck. When Neytiri does the same with Spider, Quaritch at first denies his relationship with him but relents when Neytiri cuts Spider across the chest. 

Sully, Quaritch, Neytiri, and Tuk end up trapped inside the capsizing vessel with the water levels raising all around them. Sully strangles Quaritch into unconsciousness in an underwater fight and is rescued by Lo'ak and Payakan, and Kiri summons sea creatures to help her save Neytiri and Tuk. Spider finds and rescues Quaritch, but quickly turns against him for his cruelty, and rejoins Sully's family, unaware that Quartich is still alive. After Neteyam's funeral, sully informs Tonowari and Ronal of his decision to leave the Metkayina. Tonowari, however, respectfully identifies him as part of their clan and invites his family to stay. Sully and his family accept and forge a new life at sea, with Sully vowing to continue his fight against the human invaders.

'Avatar : The Way of Water' is truly a visual feast - from the magnificent 3D spectacle that Cameron has created both above and below the waterline, the flora and fauna of the forest and the ocean, the action set pieces, the emotion on both a family and a friendship bonding level and the expansion of Pandora from land to sea. This is a film that must be seen on the biggest screen possible and in 3D to really appreciate what Cameron has achieved and his painstaking attention to the minutest of details that make this an enthralling cinematic experience that is among the years best. My only gripe is not at the three hours and twelve minute run time, which seemed to pass by in half the time, but by some of the drawn out sequences and in particular the scenes with the Sully's upon first arriving at the Metkayina people learn the ways of water and experience their new underwater world for the first time. But then again, I guess this is the Director showcasing all his technical wizardry and based on the budgeted cost of this movie, who can blame him for wanting to get the most bang for his buck! The cast are all on point, although I was a little disappointed to not see more of Giovanni Ribisi (who appears only fleetingly as Parker Selfridge from the first film) and Edie Falco in particular. 

'Avatar : The Way of Water' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US : Tuesday 7th November 2017.

I finally got around to seeing 'THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US' earlier this week having been on general release for about four weeks now. Here Dutch/Palestinian two time Academy Award nominee Director Hany Abu-Assad delivers a romantic adventure survival story based on the 2011 book of the same name by Charles Martin. The film was released in the US in early October having Premiered at TIFF in early September, has so far recouped US$49M in Box Office takings from its US$35M production budget, and has received generally mixed Reviews from Critics and audiences alike. The project has been in development for over five years with various scriptwriters coming and going and various Directors assigned to Direct, with Abu-Assad scoring the gig in late 2014. Meanwhile a who's who of acting talent were assigned to the principle leads including Michael Fassbender, Charlie Hunnam, Margot Robbie and Rosamund Pike over the intervening years.

The film tells the story of two complete strangers, surgeon Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba) and photojournalist Alex Martin (Kate Winslet). The former is a brain surgeon on his way back to Baltimore to perform emergency surgery to save the life of a ten year old child scheduled for the next morning, and the latter needs to get to Denver for she is getting married the next day. At Boise Airport the pair of strangers learn that all flights out are cancelled due to a big storm that is closing in and they should collect their accommodation vouchers and make the most of a bad situation. When desperate times call for desperate measures, Alex overhears Ben's commotion at the check in desk and siddles up to him with a plan.

She suggests that they charter a small light aircraft to get them to the next major airport where they can then go their separate ways to get connecting flights to their final destinations. A quick Google search reveals that as luck would have it, there is a small charter plane service just a few hangars down the runway, and so they go and enquire. They are met by Walter (Beau Bridges) who for $800 agrees to fly them to their preferred destination, and not to worry about the oncoming storm, because he has flown in worse conditions as a pilot during the Vietnam War, so that has prepared him for anything. The three, accompanied by Walters dog, board the light aircraft and off they fly.

After getting to know each other with idle chit chat and making light of their predicament, while flying over the mountainous terrain, with the storm clouds closing in, Walter has a stroke and passes out. The plane takes a nose dive, skids along a snow covered mountain, the tail section breaks off and the front section comes to rest on a snow peaked mountain top, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Unconscious for some time, Ben is the first to come around. He has sustained some minor injuries to his abdomen, some cuts and bruises and a couple of cracked ribs, but otherwise he is OK. He checks out Walter, who is dead. The dog has survived. Kate is alive but unconscious and with a serious leg injury, and abrasions to the face and eye. Being a surgeon he knows a thing or two about medical procedures and cleans her us, tends to her wounds to let the healing process commence, while she is still out cold. He strips out the inside of what remains of the plane, rigs up makeshift sleeping arrangements, collects whatever rations he can find, and buries Walter in a shallow snow grave, under a broken off section of wing.

After three days or so, Alex regains consciousness but is unable to move because of the injury sustained to her leg. As more time passes Alex comes to realise that there is little hope for a search and rescue mission, after all, Ben told no one of his charter flight, nor did Alex mention it to her fianace, and Walter didn't log the charter with Air Traffic Control, so no one will be out searching for them. Ben however, is more optimistic and believes that the pair should stay put in the shelter of the plane as rescue will come eventually.

Ben agrees to clamber to the nearest peak to see if he can get phone reception and to see for signs of life using Alex's camera with its telephoto lens to see into the distance. During his descent, Ben misses a footing and slides down the mountain almost falling off the edge of a sheer cliff face. While recovering himself, Alex is visited by a hungry mountain cougar who attacks the dog and then makes lip smacking gestures towards her. Alex is able to fend off the hungry animal with the flare gun, and it bolts off injured. When Ben returns, he fixes up the dog, reports back on his findings, and locates the now dead cougar which he chops up for meat to sustain themselves.

Continuing to sit tight in the plane, the days pass, and Alex become restless that there is little chance of them being rescued and that they should venture down the mountain to find civilisation. Ben still wants to hunker down, and they have a heated discussion, and fall asleep as night falls. At first light, with Ben still sleeping, Alex leaves the safety of the plane with the dog, determined to make it on her own despite her injuries.

Ben wakes and finds no sign of Alex except a hand written note saying see you later, thanks, good luck and I've taken the dog. Ben decides to give chase believing safety in numbers and soon catches up with Alex. They make up their past differences and agree to proceed down to the tree line. Overnight with a blizzard blowing, the find shelter in cave. The next morning, using her camera again to spot any signs of life, Alex catches a glimpse of something reflective in the far distance. The pair agree to continue their journey in that general direction.

Continuing onward making slow but sure progress down the mountain the pair rest up and perch themselves on the log of an upturned tree. The dog has gone missing and so Ben goes in search, finding the dog chasing after a rabbit in the snow. Ben also spies a cabin, and goes to investigate, finding it partly furnished but abandoned at least for the season, but able to provide warmth and shelter nonetheless. Meanwhile, Alex rises to her feet and hears a cracking sound beneath. Before you know it, Alex has fallen through a hole that has appeared on the frozen lake on which she is standing. Ben gives chase to rescue her from the frozen depths and is able to retrieve her, unconscious from the bitter cold, carting her off to the newly found cabin. There she remains unconscious for a couple of days, with Ben thinking that she may not wake up fearing that he warmed up her body too quickly.

Eventually Alex comes round, and Ben can rest easy. While out collecting firewood, Alex goes prying through Ben's gear only to find a voice recorder with a message from his wife, and is then caught red handed when Ben enters the cabin. It turns out that the message was from two years ago, and since then Ben's wife died from a brain tumour. This explains why Ben has been so guarded in talking about his wife. Overcome with emotion, and their shared experiences up to this point that has drawn them together, the pair embrace and have sex. Upon waking the next morning Alex urges Ben to go on and find help, and to leave her behind in the cabin, and to come back for her later. Reluctantly Ben agrees, but then stricken by guilt and his feelings for Alex he turns back to get her, and they continue the journey, one icy cold step at a time.

Nearing exhaustion, they rest up against a tree and fall asleep. Alex is woken by the dog barking and tugging at his collar. He eventually comes round sliding down a snow covered embankment, coming to halt a short way down, and staring straight at a timber yard in the near distance. He clambers back up from whence he came to stir Alex, by which time the dog has bolted, again. Whilst retrieving the dog Ben steps on a bear trap and is incapacitated. Unable to free himself from the huge jaws of the trap, he urges Alex to get help from the timber yard. Limping to the yard she collapses in front of a logging truck, and is rescued by the driver, who then retrieves Ben.

In hospital, Ben wakes and walks down the ward to find Alex. There he is confronted with Mark (Dermot Mulroney), Alex's fiancee, who praises Ben for saving her life, but Ben responds saying it was she who saved his. Ben, physically and emotionally broken by the unexpected confrontation, backs out of the room politely. We then jump ahead to some weeks later, and their separate lives have returned to some normalcy. Alex is living with Mark, but all is not well there, and Ben has returned to the hospital where he works, but can no longer perform surgery because of the frost bite to his fingers. Alex makes several attempts to call Ben, but each time Ben lets her calls go unanswered. Eventually, Ben relents and agrees to meet with Alex in a restaurant. Their exchange is somewhat stilted as they catch-up with each others lives after their near death experiences on the mountain. Ben admits that he did not call Alex because she is now married to Mark and she has moved on with her former life. Alex responds saying that she did not marry Mark. The pair exit the restaurant, hug, politely kiss and go there separate ways, each secretly holding back the tears. Around the block, and out of sight from each other they both stop in their tracks having come to their emotional senses, turn around, and run toward each other.

This is an instantly forgettable tale of the power of love overcoming adversity. Two strong performances from the two lead Actors elevate this romantic survival story just enough to make for an engaging tale, which when coupled with the sweeping vistas of the impressive snow covered landscapes of the High Uintas Wilderness of northeastern Utah, make up for the films misgivings. The opening ten minutes or so grabs the attention, but then the film rolls into predictable territory about two people drawn together emotionally and physically in order to survive a perilous ordeal, which really is short on peril (apart from a visit by a hungry cougar quickly dispensed with, and falling into a frozen lake quickly retrieved) and more about staving off the cold, which barley gets a mention either. And when the ending comes, that too is sugar coated predictability. As far as romantic survival stories go this is OK, but only OK and you can easily wait for the BluRay or catch it on demand, no doubt fairly soon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-