Infinite Storm

 

Infinite Storm
Starring Naomi Watts, Billy Howle, Denis O'Hare, Parker Sawyers
Directed by Malgorzata Szumowska

John Muir wrote: "When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty." "Infinite Storm" gets its title directly from the quote, and it centers around a unique viewpoint that we tend to ignore: the beauty in the pain. We witness storms all the time, either in real life or what we see on the news, and despite their destructive and deadly nature, there's something almost beautiful about a tornado or a blizzard - something that's destructive can also bring about beauty in the process. The same goes for the personal pain we all go through - be it disease, death, and every negative thing in-between: we often tend to avoid this pain as much as possible, but sometimes we need to experience that pain in order to see the beauty in it, and how we can shape that pain to make us even stronger. "Infinite Storm" is a true-life story of one brave woman who faced the elements - and her own grief - and came out the other side with a newfound worldview that wouldn't had come if she hadn't endured the beauty of the storm.

Still struggling with a past event that left her almost ready to end her own life, Pam Bales (Naomi Watts) finds peace, solitude, and comfort in the grand mountains of the New Hampshire landscape. She goes on a solo trek and discovers that a big storm is coming, but is too late to get back before it hits. Then she finds footprints in the snow - but not normal boot prints, instead they're tennis shoe prints. She follows the prints to a man who's sitting on a ledge practically freezing to death, and he's so cold he can't talk. She names him "John" (Billy Howle), and the two begin their treacherous decent down the mountain to safety, and along the way both of their wills are tested and stretched almost beyond their means, finding a reason to live through the darkness of the storm.

"Infinite Storm" tells the true story of Pam Bales, who rescued a man from the mountains during a severe snowstorm and managed to make it back home, thereby gaining a strength that she didn't know she had. This is a film that's uplifting, powerful, and moving - if there was something else added to it. I don't know what it is, but the film felt like a wholly vanilla outing: I should've felt more, but to me it just felt like it just progressed without that special something to make it more meaningful. I'm reminded of Leonardo DiCaprio's epic performance in "The Revenant," and this film pales in comparison - but I don't really understand why.

Maybe it's because I got there late (I checked the wrong theater's showtime and showed up twenty minutes late), but I just felt that the film was alright - nothing to make it more impactful than it should've been. It was mesmerizing to see the harrowing ordeal, but there's something about knowing the outcome that takes away from the tension, but it's not even that. I went into the film not knowing that it was even a true story, and I didn't feel a direct connection to any of the characters. They were there, they were going through tremendous odds, and they came out the other side changed - again, events that would move most people to tears, but at the end I just shrugged and was mildly surprised that it was a true story.

It has nothing to do with the performances, as Naomi Watts again gives a commanding performance as Pam Bales, a woman made of steel who utilized her never-give-up attitude and ingenuity to get herself and John down from the mountain. Watts played her perfectly, and she was utterly captivating - but again something was just missing from her performance. Likewise Billy Howle played "John" with a mixed sense of giving up and moving forward, and at the end we learn the pain that both characters went through in their lives that led them to that fateful mountain, but as it was with the whole ordeal - there was something just missing.

The cinematography was exceptional, as director Malgorzata Szumowska used the natural lighting and real setting to their full advantages, showcasing the true grit that Pam and "John" went through in real life, as well as the struggling elements that Watts and Howle had to endure during shooting. You felt their plausible discomfort in filming and you know that it wasn't all acting, as they braved the elements themselves to produce this very important story - but again, something was missing.

The closest thing I can think of is the actual story itself, and how it appears to have to give the female lead a reason to be a hero, instead of her just being one. Flashbacks throw off the groove of the story and offers a mildly misleading tale that spins out in the end that, again, should bring people to tears, but it just didn't happen. The film shows the strength of the human spirit, the resolve to get through your hardest, darkest times, and how to overcome insurmountable odds - but...finally...something was just missing.

The Score: C