The Gorge
Resist the urge to throw yourself into the abyss while watching this film
Anya Taylor-Joy can't out run a boring script.
On either side of a mysterious gorge sit two operatives. Sniper Levi Kane (Miles Teller) has been recruited to guard the west side of the area. Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a sniper recruited by the Kremlin to guard the east side of the gorge.
East versus West — DO YOU GET IT?
Both of the soldiers are told to never leave their posts. Both are forbidden from contacting the outside world or each other. And they are expressly warned to never enter the gorge.
While they’re not allowed into the gorge, some things do get out. Odd monstrous creatures are trying to claw their way to the surface, and both have orders to kill them on sight. But killing monsters in total isolation starts to wear on both Levi and Drasa, so soon they spark up a tentative communication.
As both learn more about their counterparts across the gorge, they begin to wonder just what is happening in that chasm.
Can two hostile operatives form a relationship without disaster? What’s the secret of the gorge? Why does this movie have to be so clunky?
Look, the reasons behind the monsters are almost never as satisfying as the monsters themselves. It’s why explaining Michael Myers’ bad home life in Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies chips away from the mythos of Myers instead of adding to it. The Gorge commits the same fatal mistake. Explaining all the weird occurrences robs us of the mystery. And the explanations feel like something that came up after a long night of drinking.
Director Scott Derrickson has evidently never met a Sci-Fi cliché he didn’t love. There’s no real mystery here, and the twists are telegraphed early on. It does beggar belief that two highly trained military operatives with time in the intelligence community would be so naïve about their assignment, but without their forced ignorance, this movie couldn’t exist.
In fact, most of the plot of this film seems like a side quest in a video game.
The performances are perfunctory. Neither Teller nor Taylor-Joy seems invested in their characters, so why should the audience be? Their chemistry is negligent. Their love story is rather blah. Watching this movie is an exercise in diminishing returns.
The true waste of the movie, however, is Sigourney Weaver, one of our greatest living actresses, being reduced to the menacing boss trope. I hope she bought something nice for herself with the paycheck she got here.
If you’re in the mood for middling sci-fi, The Gorge might entertain. If you’re looking for something deeper…you’ll have to keep digging.
Verdict: Cliches and boring performances make for dull watching.
The Gorge is rated PG-13 and available on AppleTV+
