Nicholas Lea in "Vertical Limit."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Chris O'Donnell Director: Martin Campbell Rated: PG-13, with intense, sometimes-tragic climbing action Length: 126 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(December 8, 2000) -- Afraid of heights? Vertical Limit isn't for you. This film offers more scary-heights sequences than the rest of the year's movies combined.

But, if your idea of rousing fun is hanging precariously with your movie hero from a sheer mountain cliff, then step up.

It's just its implausible plot that makes Vertical Limit a bit of an uphill climb.

This action-packed adventure demands that you suspend your disbelief as recklessly as Chris O'Donnell suspends himself at 20,000 feet.

Vertical Limit is state-of-the-art effects and stunts, married to old-fashioned melodrama that stretches credibility farther than the climbing ropes.

O'Donnell stars as Peter Garrett, a veteran climber who's given up the sport after his father's fatal fall. Peter's sister, Annie (Robin Tunney) has continued climbing and is about to tackle K2, an infamous Himalayan peak.

She's accompanying the wealthy entrepreneur and sometime-climber Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton), who plans to be standing on the stop of the second-highest mountain in the world when his new airline makes its debut flight over the summit. (What did I tell you about plausibility?)

Vaughn is a foolhardy, unscrupulous climber and gets his party in deep trouble. In fact, he and Annie are among only three survivors -- and they're trapped in an icy crevice, high atop K2.

Brother Peter just happens to be at the K2 base camp, photographing a National Geographic article. He immediately organizes a squad to rush up K2 to save his sister.

Guilt is the prime motivator -- he blames himself for his father's death.

Peter gets help from an ornery veteran (Scott Glenn) who has his own agenda for climbing the mountain.

The improbabilities pile up deeper than the snow, but fortunately director Martin Campbell also piles on the action. Most of the time, you'll be too breathless or unnerved from the avalanches, crevice-jumping, cliff-hanging and helicopter-dangling to worry about plot points.

O'Donnell dives enthusiastically into the earnest narrative and is convincing as an athletic climber. And so is Tunney as his capable sister. Izabella Scorupco only confuses matters as another climber, simply because she looks like Tunney.

Glenn adds eccentric atmosphere as the long-haired ex-hippie veteran, while Paxton ably conveys a self-centered conniver.

The film's many stunts are exciting, well-staged and cleverly shot to this layman's eyes, though climbers might nitpick the probabilities of some of the actions.

My nitpick is more basic: In a film with so much technical expertise, why don't we see the breath of the three climbers trapped in the icy crevice of K2?