Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jason Clarke, Emily Watson, Sam Worthington, Josh Brolin, Kiera Knightley, Justin Salinger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, Mia Goth, Stormur Jón Kormákur Baltasarsson, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Clive Standen, Vanessa Kirby, John Hawkes, Elizabeth Debecki, Naoki Mori, Michael Kelly, Tim Dantay, Todd Boyce, Mark Derwin, Martin Henderson, Tom Goodman-Hill, Charlotte Bøving, Thomas M. Wright, Amy Schindler, Chris Reilly, Ang Phula Sherpa, Pemba Sherpa.

There will always be, one hopes, adventurers, people with spirit and explorers, pioneers, people who see the mountain in whatever shape and form it takes and relish the challenge of attaining their goal – even it means personal loss and possible risking of life; for without that risk, humanity becomes staid and placid.

Everest is perhaps as it stands the greatest test of human endurance on Earth right now, a test that few have even realised through to its conclusion and one that has only finally been done within many people living today’s lifetime. Everest is cruel, unforgiving and intolerant of mistakes and personal pride and yet people continue to attempt to tame her and all for that one reason, that glorious reason, it is there.

The film of one of the blackest days in the history of mountain climbing is captured in full brutal agony but one that gives so much to the endeavour of humanity to struggle to attain such lofty heights and the events shown based on the ill-fated 1996 climb led by the astonishingly brave Rob Hall and Scott Fischer.

At no point does the film relent in its objective, it mauls and guides the cinema-goer with style and substance and never once does it allow time to become comfortable. This is a film in which actually does try and fill the screen with emotion, the human frailty to succumb to conditions not designed to stay alive in and the tantalising reward it offers for those that see the experience through, the realisation that life is meant to be a challenge, that mountains are meant to be climbed and conquered.

For British actor Emily Watson, this was a particularly moving and exceptional performance as Helen Wilton. The woman to whom everybody looked to when the time came as the lynch pin in the rescue, who shouldered the burden of responsibility perhaps with more pain than anyone else and who was that there fateful day in May and to whom receiving and co-ordinating the rescue as an intermediary between all the climbers was something that took just as much heroism in the face of overwhelming disaster. Emily Watson has had so many special parts in her life, but as Helen Wilton she excels beyond belief.

With Jason Clarke as leader Rob Hall, Naoko Mori as Yasuko Namba, the first woman to climb all seven peaks and the excellent Josh Brolin as survivor Beck Weathers all being part of a sensational team that captured the very essence of both nature at its most unforgiving and human spirit at its very best; Everest is a mountain that had to be conquered and a film that had to be realised. Superbly shot, delicately handled and a film that if it doesn’t move your heart, only confirms it to be as stony as the mountain itself.

Ian D. Hall