The Mountain Between Us Review: 4 Ups & 6 Downs

3. It Makes Unnecessary Changes To The Novel

The Mountain Between Us Idris Elba Kate Winslet
Fox

For those who've read Charles Martin's source material, you might be a little miffed that the movie makes a number of unnecessary changes to the 2011 novel.

From the opening set-up of the movie through to its conclusion, Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe's script remixes the original story for little rhyme or reason.

While some of the changes do work, far more of them only make the end result seem that much sappier, while also brushing other aspects of the plot under the carpet (such as totally forgetting about Beau Bridges' pilot character the moment he dies).

It'll annoy the purists for sure, and while it's sometimes appropriate to make changes to a novel in order to adapt it to the big screen, that's not really the case here for the most part.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.