For a movie about bodily endurance and rugged adventure, Cailley's direction is oddly detached—he lets the script suggest the tough work and hardly bothers to film it. But near the end the long, schematic setup delivers a remarkable twist: the near-couple's theoretical training for survival gets put to a severe practical test. Here, too, Cailley leaves much of the most interesting action to the imagination, but the power of his idea overrides, albeit briefly, the thinness of its realization.
Richard Brody
May 25, 2015