The Climb (2020) * *

 

Directed by:  Michael Angelo Covino

Starring:  Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin, Gayle Rankin, George Wendt, Talia Balsam, Judith Godreche

The Climb begins promisingly.   Longtime best friends Mike (Covino) and Kyle (Marvin) are bicycling up a long, winding mountain road in France.   Kyle is about to get married, but Mike has news for him:   He slept with Kyle's fiancee, both long ago and recently.   Kyle rightfully wants to kick Mike's ass, if he could catch up to him, but a driver of a car soon gets into an altercation with Mike and does the honors instead. Kyle and Ava don't marry, and we fast forward to Ava's funeral, where we learn Mike and Ava married and Kyle's friendship with Mike naturally ended.   But Kyle attends the funeral, and comforts Mike in his grief, although they don't reconcile.   That comes later.   The two fall into a familiar pattern, in which Kyle and Mike reconcile and Mike does something to screw it up.   Kyle soon is engaged to the dominating Marissa (Rankin), who I suppose loves Kyle, or just sees him as someone whose balls she can break for years to come.  You can guess what happens next.

The Climb starts off with a certain charm, but then makes some ill-advised style choices which distract from a fragile story of two friends who are better off finding other friends.   Like 1917, Covino's camera shoots on long tracking shots which take center stage over the characters.   It didn't work in 1917, and it doesn't work here.   We also have inexplicable musical interludes which serve as transitions between story arcs.  This is not a story or characters which deserve such stylistic overkill or can stand up under the weight of it.   

Covino and Marvin co-wrote the screenplay, with Covino directing in his feature debut.   The Climb takes chances, and its independent spirit is very much alive, but after a while we tire of these two characters and all of the hoopla surrounding them.  They are only marginally likable at best, but Covino and Kyle play off each other with easy familiarity which no doubt is a byproduct of a long friendship.  I can only hope that Covino wasn't such a dick to Kyle in real life.   Maybe we'll find out one day if this is so.