Dull as dish water this one is, and for what could have been a fascinating topic. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but Jeff Goldblum looked incredibly old in the picture. Checking his stats here on IMDb, he's almost seventy, which I didn't realize, so that explains that observation. I couldn't help thinking that his character, Dr. Wallace Fiennes, was both unethical and irresponsible in the way he carried on with his social life, reveling in a drunken stupor on more than one occasion as he rode the circuit with would be assistant Andy (Tye Sheridan). As for Andy, his off-putting countenance was typified by a mostly catatonic stare most of the time that bordered on creepy. Following his berserk outburst at the asylum, I fully expected Andy to wind up on a table for one of the good doctor's controversial procedures. It looked like lobotomy and electroshock were his stock in trade with a decided effort to avoid getting with the times in regard to more modern treatments. Come to think of it, Susan's father (Denis Levant) looked like he could have used a good procedure himself. I'm not sure how the picture's ending resolved anything for Susan (Hannah Gross) or Andy, finding themselves in the middle of a snow covered forest with no options at their disposal. Personally, it didn't feel to me as if they were 'Home, Home on the Range'. For a much better film dealing with mental illness during the era of the Forties and Fifties, I would recommend taking a look at 1948's "The Snake Pit".
Review of The Mountain
