Directed by: Malgorzata Szumowska
Starring: Naomi Watts, Billy Howle
Based on a true story, Infinite Storm is less riveting than we would expect from a story of a hiker who saves another while trapped in the New Hampshire mountains during a vicious winter storm. I didn't dislike the film as much as I was indifferent towards it. Naomi Watts is a determined Pam Bales, who comes across a freezing, stranded hiker she calls John (Howle) at a mountaintop and struggles to help him back down to safety. At times, John doesn't even seem like he wants to be rescued. Is he possibly suicidal?
Because we've seen rescue movies like this before, such as 2017's The Mountain Between Us in which two plane crash survivors make their way to safety in frigid, snow-covered mountains, Infinite Storm seems like same old, same old even though it's based on a true story. I even thought of Robin Wright's 2021 Land, where she survives a miserable winter or two in a remote mountain cabin. Pam has a Past and is Haunted, of course, involving her two children who died due to asphyxiation from a gas leak. Does this provide her the necessary impetus to save John's life? Is Pam on a path to Redemption? Are there stars in the sky?
Naomi Watts portrayed a determined survivor in 2012's The Impossible and carries on with the same pluck grit, and patience here as in the former film. Even with glimpses of her past, there isn't much character for Watts to play, so we have to rely on our universal fear of being stuck in a similar situation to empathize fully. The best advice I can give anyone watching Infinite Storm is: Try your best not to chastise them aloud about going hiking with a winter storm pending.
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