Hany Abu-Assad's "The Mountain Between Us" reminds us that (thankfully) the Rocky Mountains remain a wild place, all the more so the Canadian bits which here stand in for their US counterparts. And there is many a breathtaking view to be had here - something that even our stranded heroes notice, notwithstanding the fact that that very widlerness is threatening their lives. For me that observation was perhaps the cleverest touch or peak achievement in the film, though we are entitled to ask if anywhere (in the USA) is really that desolate and untouched. Otherwise this movie depends a lot on the age-old sweet/sexy "Blue Lagoon" type idea that two people thrown together by adverse circumstances might grow to love each other. In this case, this is Kate Winslet (Brit playing American) and Idris Elba (Brit playing Brit), and it's fair to say they do the best they can with script and story as presented to them. However, there is not a great deal of scope for more complex interaction or dialogue, just quite a lot of groaning with shared suffering, with occasional arguments as to what they should do next, and what matters in life. More of the latter we might have had...A further question begged here is whether a relationship forged in such circumstances requires at least some recreation of those circumstances if it is to survive. To be honest, I see neither London nor New York as a place in which the pairing between Ben and Alex is going to work. But I could see them buzzing off to a cabin maybe not quite as isolated as the one that saved their lives, but somewhere way out there.Beau Bridges appears briefly and injects a hint of comedy, and there's a dog, but basically this is close to being a two-star vehicle, and they do OK...

Being stuck on a mountain trying to get to safety takes endurance, sadly not for the actors but the viewers. If you are thinking about watching this movie go to Homebase buy a tin of white paint, paint a square and watch it for two hours, even my Sky box thought it was longer 120 minutes rather than the run time of 112 minutes. The story two people crash land on a mountain with lassie the wonder dog who can see of mountain cats, sense when you are slipping into hypothermia, locate cabins in the wilderness. The dog out acts both Idris Elba and Kate Winslet who appear in a coma throughout the film. I have rarely seen so little screen chemistry, in fact the appear to dislike each other, in the inevitable love scene in the cabin she turns away like she would rather be anywhere rather than having this bloke humping above her. They are suppose to be on a mountain in freezing conditions yet they stroll of the mountain and at one point he is throwing sticks for the dog to play fetch, having been stuck in a snow drift when the beast of the East arrived, you go cold quickly, not these two. Some people have praised the cinematography but I thought it was poor, there should have been more lingering shots to convey the desolation and the huge wilderness. The movie I shot like they are on a winter wonderland vacation.

Don't be put off by some of the reviews! If you like your chilled out evening films then it the film for you. Beautifully screened, romance, a fight against the odds to survive. Well worth the watch and pleasantly surprised.

It is a bit of an ordeal and the star is a retriever who survives a plane crash and then saves two humans from attack and helps them back to civilisation despite their attempts todo other non- dog stuff. Dogs ends up in London and waits patiently while the humans learn how to love. The dog knows this already even though his first owner Walter dies in the crash.Great dog film.