The Gorge's lead performances and romantic elements are a welcome addition to a samey blockbuster movie space.
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As many critiques as you can levy against Apple + or Apple TV + or whatever the hell they're calling the platform nowadays, I genuinely appreciate any media company putting a bunch of money behind movies and shows that wouldn't get made otherwise. Killers of the Flower Moon, Ted Lasso and The Tragedy of Macbeth were unlikely to see the light of day, as intended, without Apple footing the bill. Which brings me to The Gorge a movie that decides to put a bunch of genres in a blender for an honest to goodness action romance movie.
The Setup
The movie centers around two highly trained snipers/assassins. Former Marine Levi Kane (Miles Teller) and a Lithuanian and frequent Kremlin operative Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) who are tasked with manning opposing sides of "The Gorge," a satellite-shielded valley that is attacked by mysterious creatures known as the "Hollow Men." Despite strict orders to avoid contact, Levi and Drasa quickly break protocol and begin to connect despite the chasm between them. But can the two survive the year and find a way to bridge the gap, without getting killed in the process?
I'll admit that I was in the movie's camp before it started. Here we have an original idea for a blockbuster style movie that they don't make anymore: a high concept sci-fi action romance. One of my biggest frustrations with modern blockbusters is how they can look and feel rather sexless. There's a deep irony that genres that are almost singlehandedly responsible for projecting the image of impossibly ripped bodies, like superhero movies, are so afraid of demonstrating intimacy between said bodies and at most feature a single kiss.
This isn't to say that the current generation of moviemakers or viewers are prudes, but when done right, romantic connection combined with high stakes scenarios like saving the world or fighting off aliens is an added layer of fun and satisfaction. The mid-90s to the late 2010s were chalk full of movies that blended action and romance together including Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mask of Zorro and beyond.
The caveat? It shouldn't feel obligatory. You need a real reason these characters connect, leads with chemistry, and a sense of pace.
And this setup, is basically tailor-made for some rom-com fun.
There's basically a mile between Levi and Drasa at their respective watchtowers and all regular means of communication are down (because this place is a secret). So all they can really do is write messages to each other that they each view through binoculars or make noise loud enough to make an impact. Literal and figurative distance put between them that begins to get/feel closer as they communicate more and are sharing in the same monotony, boredom and isolation that comes with this job (and their job in general).
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller are both quite suited to these roles. Teller, at least in my opinion, does his best when he's playing extremes, either he's volatile or he's super chill. And super chill/buttoned up works really well for an isolated gun-for-hire and former Marine. Whereas Taylor-Joy is our spark plug, in action and performance, and the movie is all the better for it. Taylor-Joy's Drasa is providing the emotional push that eventually gets Teller's Levi to open up and pushes both of them to go from a small rebellion to a large one.
This "getting to know each other" segment is the bulk of the movie's run time and it's actual core appeal, with a number of seemingly rude interruptions to remind them and the audience why they're here in the first place.
This "getting to know each other" segment is the bulk of the movie's run time and it's actual core appeal, with a number of seemingly rude interruptions to remind them and the audience why they're here in the first place.
But because this is a high concept sci-fi movie as well, the "what's going on" has to intrude at some point, and creates a bit of tension between what the intended audience is going to enjoy vs. genre conventions.
A lot of the reviews I've seen have highlighted that the action heavy back half of the movie, despite being well-staged with some fun Stranger Things-esque creature designs, isn't as satisfying as the first half.
And I think that's both true and kind of the point. So a light a spoiler ahead. As you might expect, the secretive nature of what's going on in the titular Gorge is not something anyone wants to get out into the world. Hence everything being hidden from satellites and what looks and feels like a normal military operation being carried out by two skeleton crews of single soldiers. This is confirmed when the man Levi replaced is unceremoniously murdered after he's served his stint.
And I think that's both true and kind of the point. So a light a spoiler ahead. As you might expect, the secretive nature of what's going on in the titular Gorge is not something anyone wants to get out into the world. Hence everything being hidden from satellites and what looks and feels like a normal military operation being carried out by two skeleton crews of single soldiers. This is confirmed when the man Levi replaced is unceremoniously murdered after he's served his stint.
So an active thought that the audience kinda forgets about while Levi and Drasa are bonding is "what the hell are they going to do when their time comes?" Which means we need some kind of action to reveal all of these secrets, find out who the main villain is, and give our heroes a means out.
We want them together, so the action and plot feel like they're in the way of that. So the fighting isn't for the sake of watching a cool action sequence, and I think director Scott Derrickson and company do a great of coming up with a number of novel mixtures on military action blended with sci-fi monsters, but so that these two can reunite or survive together. It plays out more like survival horror in that way.
That being said, the back end is almost all action and exposition and could use a bit more character. Sure we've got two military bad-asses who seem ready to fight at a moment's notice, but maybe a little friction between them could add to the drama or at least make their success over these monstrous things more engaging.
Put another way, a great genre hybrid can shift between moods, tones and aspects without losing steam. The aforementioned Mask of Zorro has melodrama, action, comedy, romance often within the same scenes but it all feels neat. It feels less neat here, which is the only ding against an otherwise satisfying movie.
The Verdict: Refreshing
While it loses a bit of its momentum towards the end, The Gorge's lead performances and romantic elements are a welcome addition to a samey blockbuster movie space. 7/10
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