I am not sure how often I use the word derivative to describe movies, but it may be quite often. It certainly seems that way lately. I should emphasise that I'm not always using the word as a criticism though. It's just a description. So when I start this review of The Gorge by mentioning how derivative it is I don't want you to think that I'm about to give it a kicking. I had more fun with The Gorge than many other star vehicles I have seen in the last few months. And, whatever you think of Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy, this IS a star vehicle for them, even if you only realise that as the end credits roll and you find yourself wanting to spend more time with the main characters.
Teller and Joy are Levi and Drasa, two very talented sharp-shooters. They don't know each other, but they end up inhabiting a tower on either side of the titular gorge. In the kind of summary that makes for a great trailer line, they soon find out that their job is not to stop anything from entering the gorge . . . but to stop anything from coming out. While they're not supposed to have contact with one another, Levi and Drasa soon start communicating via dialogue written on whiteboards. And they soon start to like one another. There's a huge gorge between them though, and something in it that seems to be eager for them to make just one small mistake.
I'm not going to pretend that writer Zach Dean is someone I am a fan of, you can check his fairly limited filmography to see a few films that nobody would ever rush to view, and the filmography of director Scott Derrickson is certainly a mixed bag, but this has the two men working together on something that ends up being a pleasant surprise, despite the obvious influences throughout. Anyone who has played The Last Of Us, Resident Evil, or Silent Hill will find some of the visuals and production design here very familiar, and there are sections that certainly feel like videogame levels, but the fact that it feels constructed with care, and takes a decent amount of time to flesh out the main characters before putting them into serious danger.
Teller and Joy, despite the distance between them for a lot of the movie, have great chemistry together, and it's more than enough to make up for their characters being a clumsy mix of clichés. The script develops their relationship nicely, using a nice sprinkling of humour to show them growing closer as they deal with the isolation and strange nature of their assignment. There are very small roles for Sope Dirisu and Sigourney Weaver, but the film basically rests on the shoulders of the two leads, which is perfectly fine when they're able to carry it so easily.
It's all silly nonsense, and there's even room for fun nods to both The Queen's Gambit and Whiplash, but it's pretty great silly nonsense. There's decent cinematography from Dan Laustsen, another worthwhile score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and some decent set-pieces that help to make the 127-minute runtime fairly fly by. I really enjoyed this, and I would quite happily watch it again any time. Which is more than I can say for the other films that Zach Dean has helped to write.
8/10
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