The Ledge [Digital]
CAUTION - SPOILERS AHEAD!
CAUTION - SPOILERS AHEAD!
Directed by Howard J. Ford, The Ledge follows Kelly, played by Brittany Ashworth, who - with her friend Sophie - has gone on a mountain-climbing trip in memory of her fiancé. After meeting a group of guys who have also come to climb the mountain, albeit with plans to go the more ‘relaxed’ route than the adventurous and adept girls, Kelly heads off to bed uncomfortable - leaving Sophie with the men. Alarm bells instantly ringing, regardless of the fact that I know the basic plot line of the movie from the trailer.
Now, I’m not a climber - nor a hillwalker, or an “out in the wilderness” type person in general, but from what I could gather from a quick search on the internet, it seems that most places such as this where there are lodges to stay at the base of popular climbing spots - they tend to have staff. Whether it’s just people to take care of the lodges in between bookings, or to provide people with maps, local knowledge, etc. but the fact that there appears to be a few lodges - and that’s it - seems weird to me, not to mention unsafe.
Our main antagonist is Josh, who is a bit of a… no sorry, scratch that - he’s a huge dick in all honesty. The other boys seem to recognise this, and all kinda discuss his issues behind his back at moments throughout the film, but without addressing it to Josh directly - noting how there was a previous ‘incident’ and how this will probably be the last time they bring Josh along. After having his advances rejected by Sophie, Josh chases her down to assault her before she falls a distance off a cliff edge after being hit by Josh, breaking her back when she hits the ground below. The events leading up to it would probably not have been looked kindly upon by the authorities, but the drop itself was accidental - so this whole issue could have been dealt with by simply calling for help. But no - Josh proceeds to then kill her, forcing his friends to take part so they are all equally implicated in the act - before tossing her body off of the mountain.
Of the four boys, only one seems to care enough not to simply brush off what Josh does. One of the others, Taylor, is a lawyer who states that it will not look good for any of them if they don’t go along with what Josh says, and this just made us want to scream at the TV, as surely he should know that the three boys testifying against one would have been a better option, or even moreso - all four of them confirming it was an accident (if they’d called for mountain rescue after Sophie’s fall). Thankfully, during all of the kerfuffle, Kelly had woken up and went out in search of her friend, recording the last moments before the boys spot her. This then led to the next frustrating plot point, which was Kelly running back to the lodge, grabbing her climbing bag and then heading back towards the mountain.
Aside from the sense of danger from the boys - mostly Josh - pursuing her, the threat of the mountain itself is there, though not quite as well utilised as we’d hoped or expected. Many of the shots are tight, showing Kelly clinging on for dear life, but you don’t get to see any real sense of depth to show just how high up she is. One by one, Josh turns on his friends for various reasons, leaving just him and Kelly for the finale. Ben Lamb, who plays Josh, perfectly captures the role of being such an unlikeable twat that we were praying throughout the entire movie just to see him get his comeuppance.
At just under 90 minutes, it’s a decently short movie but it oddly feels longer due to how slow the story and the threat plays out. Josh is seemingly just a shit person, with no real reason why - he has split from his fiancée recently, but the boys talk made out like he’s always been like this - and them sticking by him (for the most part) just emboldens him further. Overall, The Ledge has an interesting premise, with being out so far from civilisation as a threat, but the storyline that goes along with this feels somewhat forced.
In the end, we decided to give The Ledge the Collecting Asylum rating of 4/10.
Are you interested in The Ledge? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Signature Entertainment for The Ledge review screener!
