As much as The Girl on the Mountain could have been a decent story about grief and redemption – this movie, just wasn’t. Either these parts were left on the cutting room floor or someone forgot that it needs a compelling story to keep an audience engaged.
The Girl on the Mountain tells the story of Jack, a former musical conductor who goes out to the woods to live (and/or) take his life after the death of his daughter. When he stumbles on a young girl on the mountain, he changes direction and becomes her protector – something he feels he failed at for his own daughter. Dubbing her Aria (since the girl doesn’t appear to speak), he
We’ve all seen this story before. A man running away from reality and going out to nature. But The Girl on the Mountain somehow seems to drag out the story even more and adds in more unrealistic elements. Sure, they could have focused more on the real side of grief, or how it actually felt. But instead with some bizarre and extreme choices. We all want to run away from life and reality from time to time. And I’m sure the grief of losing a child is insurmountable. But how quickly Jack steps up in a form of redemption, how his reasoning to be lost to wilderness seemed so surface level that the movie was almost hard to watch.
With moments that will make you stop and go “why would they do that” to unrealistic depictions of people from the south, that danced close to a trope but went quickly to offensive. Aria’s stepfather/mother’s boyfriend and his friends are the bumbling idiots and abusive men with a southern drawl that are quick to follow orders of an openly abusive person.
Jack’s daughter dies in a way that is almost laughable and his self-blame, while may be realistic for any parent who has lost a child – makes you stop and ask why he is fully to blame in the eyes of everyone when his daughter was a teen and it was completely her fault.
Overall, The Girl on the Mountain seems to lack a story that will keep you engaged and misses so many marks it’s almost hard to watch.
The Girl on the Mountain is now in theaters, although you may want to skip this one.
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About The Girl on the Mountain:
THE GIRL ON THE MOUNTAIN is an intense thriller set against a backdrop of beautiful, yet treacherous wilderness. Haunted by family tragedy, reclusive backwoodsman Jack Ward (Daniel O’Reilly) is given a chance at redemption when a young girl (Makenzie Sconce) fleeing abuse and murder, comes into his life. Safety and security are short-lived as the girl’s vengeful father and his posse converge on the two. Now Ward must summon his instincts as a paternal protector and face off against the sadistic intruders.