A Lonely Place to Die (2011) starring Alec Newman, Ed Speleers, Melissa George, Kate Magowan directed by Julian Gilbey Movie Review

A Lonely Place to Die (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Melissa George in A Lonely Place to Die (2011)

A Mountain Getaway

Alison (Melissa George) along with her boyfriend Ed (Ed Speleers) and some friends are tackling some peaks in Scotland although with Ed not being the most experienced climber he is a bit of a liability. When they set off through the woods to tackle one of the more dangerous climbs Ed hears a voice coming from nowhere and then they discover a girl buried deep in the woods in a man made chamber. Whilst two of them head off for help the others try to get the girl out the long way but they all soon realise that they are not alone in the woods and are in a lot of danger.

"A Lonely Place to Die" starts off a bit cliche, we get the close up sweep out to wide angle shot of climbers which whilst giving us a beautiful scenic shot is as I said cliche with a moment of drama as something goes wrong and we have a tumble. To say I wondered whether to bother with the rest of the movie would be no word of a lie and the subsequent scene of these climbers and friends in their lodge playing cards did little to fill me with optimism.

Ed Speleers in A Lonely Place to Die (2011)

But then "A Lonely Place to Die" starts to go some where when Ed hears a voice in the woods and suddenly out of nothing we have atmosphere as they find this Croatian or Serbian girl buried in a wooden tomb in the woods. All of a sudden this movie seems good and the subsequent scene of Alison and her friend Rob tackling a dangerous climb as it is the shortest route to get help is exciting. I should say I am no rock climber so I don't know how authentic these climbing scenes are but they are exciting and they grab your attention. So do the scene of the others as they try to make it through the woods the long way with a girl who doesn't understand them and a lot of aggravation because of Ed's yobbish attitude.

And then we get a twist and all I will say is that these friends discover they are not alone and the seriousness of their situation presents itself to the audience. I am not going in to detail other than to say there is some cleverness but at the same time some far fetched stuff which you will either find as utter nonsense or extremely entertaining.

What this all boils down to is that "A Lonely Place to Die" is an uneven movie which at times is boring at others is smart and depending what you are expecting will sway how you feel about it. For me it was entertaining because whilst it ended up cliche it took a smart path to get to that point and the far fetched stuff was entertaining.


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