The mountains are always a useful point of reference for film-makers looking to exploit the themes of redemption, with films like CLIFFHANGER. In the new rural drama THE GIRL ON THE MOUNTAIN, it is two characters looking for clarity and hope.
Bad things happen to bad people, so Jack Ward (Daniel O’Reilly) reflects at one point in the film – and he has had it bad with not one but two family tragedies (revealed as the film develops) and a determination with one bullet available to do himself in if the time and inclination develops. However, whilst washing his face in the river, a young, dirty-of-face girl (Makenzie Sconce) is helping herself to food from the rucksack he has brought with him and then the rucksack itself.
Understandably, he is miffed and pursues her, but takes pity by offering some scraps and then takes her under his wing. However, she has her own family trauma to deal with and this provides Jack with a conundrum, whether to look after her. She is seemingly deaf and can only communicate through sign, which Jack does have a faint grasp of, but she reveals that there are bad people after her with nothing but bad things on their mind….
Writer/director Matt Sconce is to be applauded for making a deaf female character a key protagonist, following on from recent acclaimed films like A QUIET PLACE PARTS I AND II and CODA and the film builds solidly on the relationship between Jack and the girl, but falls down in the thriller-in-the-rural motif that defined the likes of DELIVERANCE, the original FIRST BLOOD and A LONELY PLACE TO DIE, coming to life in the last half hour. O’Reilly and Sconce make a fine pairing (Sconce especially shines in her role) and there is some fine cinematography and framing (also by Matt Sconce).
It does take its’ time at the outset which will make audiences a little shifty as it does have moments that work well, but they seem a little leisurely for a film that focuses on family tragedy and trauma. One hoped that there might have been a little more intensity in the first half.
