Directed by Scott Derrickson
Written by Zach Dean
Scott Derrickson’s career has been an interesting journey, starting from the humble beginnings of a horror movie director, ascending all the way to the Marvel movie machine with his rendition of Doctor Strange. He has elevated himself into the discussion of director’s whose movies you just show up for, following up his Marvel foray with an acclaimed horror film The Black Phone, and now a mega Apple product with two big stars, The Gorge. It’s hard to describe what kind of movie The Gorge is exactly, and you can tell by the genres listed on its IMDb page, but that is also kind of the exact charm of a filmmaker like Derrickson.
Levi (Miles Teller) is an accomplished sharpshooter with hundreds of confirmed kills when he gets recruited by a suspicious military complex exec (Sigourney Weaver) for a top secret, no details mission to the middle of nowhere. When he arrives for a year long shift protecting a mysterious gorge, Levi not only begins to unravel the secrets of the gorge, he also befriends the highly trained operative, Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), on the Eastern side of the gorge, with whom he was forbidden contact. But when they decide to buck the protocols and become closer, the gorge’s secrets begin to reveal themselves.
The Gorge really is about so many things, and that is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a sci-fi action movie that also spends time developing a romance in the center of the narrative. The leads, Teller and Taylor-Joy, are strong screen presences, even if their characters are thinly written and the romance between the two characters is quickly developed in a Stockholm syndrome way, with the other being the only person and contact with which they have for an entire year. But the first half of the movie allows for these actors to flex their charm in a series of meet cute evenings spent sending messages to one another. Teller and Taylor-Joy really sell it well.
Meanwhile, the second half of the film shifts entirely when we finally get a real peak into what is going on in the mysterious gorge. Like so many films before, the mystery ends up being slightly better than the reality. Finally coming to the realization of what this thing is, and what is happening there doesn’t live up to the hype of the anticipation, but very little could have pulled it off, it’s the downfall of many mystery films. To avoid revealing what the twist is, what the gorge is, I will just say that I was underwhelmed by the reality and the second half action sequences let the air out of the enjoyment of the film to some extent.
Scott Derrickson is an accomplished director with plenty on his resume to prove it. While there are stretches of The Gorge which seem to heavily align with that thought, moments of real entertainment, intrigue and cinematic accomplishment, in the end the horror/action elements of the film let down the potential and momentum of the film. I was engaged and kept on the edge of my seat for a lot of it, and many films cannot claim the same thing. It’s definitely a film worth checking out for the most curious of observers, the scenario had the potential to be truly great. A shame the ultimate story beats and execution don’t follow through on that full potential.
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