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A Lonely Place to Die (2011)
IFC Films
Blu-ray Disc Released: 3/20/2012
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Review by Mike Long, Posted on 3/16/2012
I've often wondered how actors choose their projects. We hear that their agents send scripts to them, so it stands to reason to ask if the performers get to have much say in what movies they'll appear, since someone else is picking which scripts they get to read. Every actor has their ups and downs, but some seem to have streaks of appearing in either really good or really bad movies. Melissa George is either adept at choosing movies, or she has great team behind her. In 2009, she appeared in the obscure horror-thriller
Triangle, which turned out to be one of the twistiest movies that you're never heard of. Now, George comes out of the blue again with the impressive A Lonely Place to Die. If only she could find someone to promote these movies for her.In A Lonely Place to Die George stars as Alison, an active woman who is on a mountain climbing excursion in the Scottish Highlands with her friends -- Rob (Alec Newman), Ed (Ed Speleers), Andy (Eamonn Walker), and Jenny (Kate Magowan). After a day of climbing, the group spends the night celebrating. The next day, they venture out to conquer some minor hills. While taking a break, they hear a voice calling for help. They find a young girl (Holly Boyd) buried in a hole in the ground. The girl doesn't speak English, so they decide to take her to the nearest village for help. What they don't know is that there are to evil men in the forest who will do anything to protect their secret plan -- even murder.
What's better than watching a good movie? Watching a good movie that takes you completely by surprise. I find Melissa George attractive and I'd seen the trailer for A Lonely Place to Die, but I didn't really know much about the movie, save that it looked like it was about stranded mountain-climbers, a sub-genre for which I have no time. (If you get stranded while climbing a mountain for sport, then you get what you deserver for climbing it in the first place.) So, I was delighted to find that A Lonely Place to Die is much more than that -- in fact, it's one of the best action films that I've seen in quite some time.
At first glance, A Lonely Place to Die doesn't seem to have a lot going for it, but the film's power comes from the talent of Director/Co-writer/Co-editor Julian Gilbey. To be honest, the story is very pedestrian and familiar: a group of outsiders go into the wilderness, discover a secret, and must flee for their lives. To makes things a little different, mountain climbing is thrown in, so the whole thing feels somewhat like Deliverance meets
Cliffhanger. The last act throws in something which we've seen in James Bond movies and in I Know What You Did Last Summer, where those being pursued flee into a street festival where the sounds of fireworks cover up the gunfire. (This part really confused me, as the Scotland-based party looked a lot like something from Rio. Apparently, I know nothing about Scotland.) If you look at the progression of the story, there aren't any notable plot twists here. The shocks in A Lonely Place to Die come from the deaths. We learn very early on that anyone can die and who dies and when they die shocking nearly every time. Gilbey shows a unique talent for lulling the audience into a false sense of security and convincing them that no one will die in the this scene and BANG!, someone is dead. The movie is really shocking when one perilous thing is happening and the focus is suddenly shifted in another direction due to a character's death. Gilby's strategy here is simple and brilliant -- any movie can show something dangerous happening, let's have someone die due to a totally unrelated cause at that exact moment so that the audience never knows what could happen.This makes A Lonely Place to Die a movie worth noting. The movie looks like just another mountain climbing...blah blah...kidnapping...whatever...kind of movie. But, the first murder really makes you sit up and take notice, and things rarely settle down from there. The acting is good and the movie makes nice us of the rural settings. The very end leaves a little to be desired, as we want at least one more thing to happen, but that doesn't diminish the impact of the rest of the movie. If you like taking in the movie equivalent of strays, then check out A Lonely Place to Die.
A Lonely Place to Die should have opened with a "this is why people climb rocks" tutorial on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. This is one of the clearest movies which I've seen a while. The daytime exterior shots have a crispness and depth which look as if we could simply walk into them. The picture is never overly dark or bright, and the colors look good. The image is very detailed and we can make out textures on objects. It was interesting to turn away from the tension for a moment and note just how clear the image was. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 48 kHz. The tack provides clear dialogue and sound effects. This lively track does a fine job of illustrating the sounds in the wilderness. We get various forest sounds when the group is hiking and the surround sound speakers echo with the cries of the trapped girl. Gunfire ricochets through the rear channels, making the action scenes even more intense. The subwoofer comes into play with the fireworks and some important mountain climbing sounds.
The lone extra on the A Lonely Place to Die Blu-ray Disc is a TRAILER for the film.
Review Copyright 2012 by Mike Long