Three young skiers decide to take on final run before the weekend is over and soon find themselves stuck in the middle of snow storm on a bench straddled in the middle of the air forgotten by the staff left to survive.

I love that I can summarize the film in one sentence; there aren’t many films that I can do that with.  The film debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival – an event I hope to one day grace with my presence in one capacity or another – and I remember reading all of these rave reviews of how effective the scene to scene moments were and how brilliantly weaved this simple plot was told while at the same time allowing for true fear to ring through the audience as we have to sit and watch on as these three people try to make it out of this ordeal alive. I’m here to tell you that all those views are pretty much wrong.

The film begins simply enough. We’re introduced to each of these characters. Joe Lynch (Shawn Ashmore) and Dan Walker (Kevin Zegers) are best friends and tend to visit this ski resort every so often – probably once a year I would assume – to have their ‘guy’ time together. Parker (Emma Bell) is Dan’s new girlfriend, for about a year now, that’s become a huge part of Dan’s life and has basically invited herself into this traditionally men only allowed event. Lynch doesn’t hate Parker, but definitely comes off as a prick as he resents Parker for forcing herself into his time with his friend (which we can only imagine has already been severely reduced since the introduction of Parker to Dan’s life). So while Dan and Parker are being all cute and friendly Lynch is trying to make it about him and showing why he’s such an un-dateable guy – i.e. he’s a nerd. So we quickly can figure out the dynamic that the movie is going for.

Soon after we’re thrust into the scenario that the movie is all about we and the characters are scrambling for possible ways to deal with it and try to find rescue. Knowing that if they do nothing they will be left there for a week without food, water or proper protection from the elements we all know that the characters need to proactive about the situation. The film doesn’t fail there. Where the film fails is that the situation is transparent enough already. There aren’t many options available to our protagonists, and we know it. So we’re left there with a trio of characters that we really don’t end up caring about because of the general lack of depth. The best character of the lot ends up being Lynch, only because he’s the only one who ever gets the opportunity to show us that he actually cares, the others just come off as either overly dramatic or are swept under the rug too quickly.

The one scene that definitely stands out in the film is the scene that makes us finally have a moment that we really applaud the character of Lynch. He not only abandons his plan for the sake of his peer’s sanity but he does it to his own detriment. I really don’t want to say too much because some sensitive ears (or eyes dependent on your perception of it all) would consider it a spoiler.

Overall the movie has some moments that help your ability to complete it, but overall it’s really not worth mentioning in the scheme of things when you’re trying to sum up a year of cinema. Especially with a film like 127 Hours which does the extreme dire situation plot so much better and without any secondary characters for our protagonist to actually interact with.

IMDB says 6.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 61%

I say 5.0/10