'The Mountain' Review: A Movie to Make You Laugh and Cry Alike [TIFF 2024]
‘The Mountain’ follows Sam (Elizabeth Atkinson), Mallory (Reuben Francis), and Bronco (Terence Daniel), all eleven-year-old kids growing up in beautiful New Zealand. Each one of them has a reason to feel isolated and alone. It’s no wonder that the thing which brings them together is an attempt to climb Mt. Taranaki (which happens to be the second highest mountain in the North Island of New Zealand).
Sam is the one who begins the quest. She is struggling with cancer, staying in a hospital as she undergoes chemotherapy. One night, with the help of another patient named Peachy (Sukena Shah), Sam sneaks out of the hospital to embark on her quest to reach the top of Mt. Taranaki. Along the way, she bumps into Mallory, a shy boy who is still grieving the loss of his mother to cancer. The day happens to be his mum’s birthday, and he wants to go on an adventure the way she would have wanted to do. After his father Hugh (Bryan Coll) turns the idea down, Mallory joins Sam’s quest instead. Later on, they’re joined by Bronco, who bumped into Mallory earlier that day. Bronco has recently moved in with his father Tux (Troy Kingi), and he is struggling to form a bond with him. To complete this circle, Sam has never known her own father, and knows nothing about him except that he is Maori. This fuels her desire to climb the mountain, as she is convinced that she is bound to it by her ancestry.
As the kids join forces to complete their journey, their parents do much the same thing. First it’s Tux and Hugh that go after their sons, and then they’re joined by Sam’s distraught mother Wendy (Fern Sutherland) and Peachy. None of the parents are villains; they are allowed to be flawed people with a genuine concern for their children’s welfare. Of the parent figures, Hugh is probably given the most development. He is clearly a socially awkward man, even as he is clearly struggling as a widower and single father. There is a scene early on where Hugh has an very vulnerable moment, not realising that his son is eavesdropping. It is an astonishingly powerful scene where a parent says things in the heat of the moment which they would never dream of saying if they knew they could be overheard. It’s debatable how much Mallory understands what his father is going through, but one thing that’s beyond any doubt is how effective this story is at painting such a portrait of shared grief that’s being felt in different ways.
One might be tempted to compare The Mountain to Stand by Me or The Hunt for the Wilderpeople (which coincidentally co-starred Rachel House, who directed and co-wrote this film), but The Mountain doesn’t have the high stakes which either of those films had. There’s no police manhunt, no sadistic bullies, not even a shootout. Aside from a few obstacles, the film keeps the focus entirely on these two groups of people as they go further up the mountain. One of the most touching moments is a brief scene where the parents receive a selfie from Mallory as they’re posing together. Another film might have had the parents try and call the phone, or beg them to come back. What happens instead is an understated yet utterly sweet moment.
There are certainly moments of outright comedy; there is a particularly zany scene involving a fence, and there’s plenty of banter in both English and Maori between the characters. More often than not, though, this film aims for a slice-of-life coming-of-age approach, much to its benefit. The film does not sugarcoat a children’s adventure, but nor does it throw unnecessary conflicts in the way of the kids’ journey. If anything, it’s in a similar vein to something like the Indigenous Canadian film Wildhood, except without the teenage romance angle.
The film was co-written by Tom Furniss and Rachel House. Prior to this, House had appeared in some of the most acclaimed New Zealand films of the 21st century (Whale Rider, Bellbird, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jojo Rabbit) as well as several high-profile animated films (Moana, Soul). Throughout her career as an actor, she has also served several films as an acting coach for her child co-stars. The Mountain is her debut as a feature film director, and it’s a very good one. Whether the actors are children or adults, House did a fantastic job directing them in this simple yet powerful story. The Mountain combines the visual majesty of her native land with that blend of earnestness and understated wit that seems to be so natural to New Zealand films. Moreover, the film is very much a Maori story, not only through its characters but also through its messages regarding the land, and humans’ places within it.