Infinite Storm (2022)

Directed by Małgorzata Szumowska. Starring Naomi Watts, Billy Howle. [PG-13]

Another dramatization of real events concerning someone(s) surviving a harrowing ordeal in the wilderness, in this case a hiker (Watts) who comes upon a muddled stranger (Howle) stranded atop Mount Washington as a powerful storm rocks the region. They each have their grief-stricken baggage—his is withheld too long, hers is doled out in brief, moody flashbacks—but the actors can only do so much with such fragmentary ideas and fusty themes. As the characters endure, so, too, must the audience, but there’s a dreary uniformity to the trek back to civilization that serves to push the viewer away instead of draw them in. The emotional catharsis of its final scene rings hollow, with a hokey message of “beauty” that comes just short of Wes Bentley videotaping a plastic bag in the wind. That said, much of the nature scenery seen in the first half is rather breathtaking, captured by Polish photographer Michał Englert. Adapted from a book with a title as plodding as the movie’s drama: “High Places: Footprints in the Snow Lead to an Emotional Rescue”. Watts co-produced.

43/100