“North Face” recreates the July 1936 attempt by German climbers Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser to conquer the Eiger’s North Face, a nearly vertical mountain of snow and ice, in the Alps. When director Philipp Stolzi keeps the focus on the climb (some filmed on location, some in a refrigerated warehouse), the movie is gripping and suspenseful. Unfortunately, there are two problems. Stolzi and his screenwriters do not provide any depth to their characters. So when the climbers’ fate goes from bad to worse, our reaction is more of a reflex than real concern. In addition, someone must have told Stolzi that his story needed not only heroic sacrifice, but also doomed love because he’s fabricated a female journalist to be Toni’s love interest.
In 1936, before Berlin hosts the summer Olympics, the Nazis are determined that Germans conquer the mountain. Kurz and Hinterstoisser care little for German propaganda, but we don’t really know enough about them other than they’re willing to attempt the climb. Stolzi gets a little heavy-handed when he contrasts the alpinists’ suffering on the Eiger with shots of the rich dining in luxurious decadence in the hotel below. “North Face” might make you respect these men for the grueling trek they undertake, but because of the prologue, it’s a depressing journey because you know everyone dies. Subtitles. 2/10/10
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