[Editor's Note: North Face opens Fri., April 2 at the Tampa Theatre. (Check showtimes here.) For more reviews of the biggest new releases, check out the Daily Loaf Movie Review Index.]
There are only two kinds of mountain climbing movies: The ones where a bunch of people die before the triumphant survivors make it to the summit, and the ones where everybody dies — the end. I won’t tell you which category North Face belongs in, but you can be sure that the German import opening Friday at the Tampa Theatre is a harrowing experience. Directed by music video director Philipp Stölzl, North Face is also a terrific technical achievement that brings to the screen vertiginous sights that had me wondering how no one died during the making of this movie.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2010.