THE LEDGE

The Ledge offers up such an interesting concept for a thriller, a game of cat and mouse set against such a dangerous backdrop. Sadly, the film fails to really deliver anything to shout home about and instead becomes one of the early contenders for the worst film of the year. 

Having retired to bed early to prepare for a dawn mountain ascent, Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) is woken by the screams of her friend Sophie (Anaïs Parello), who had stayed up with a group of men they had met earlier. Desperate to get to her friend, Kelly runs deep into the forest using her GoPro to guide the way. She arrives just in time to see Sophie's lifeless body being thrown over a ledge, a horror she captures on camera. Terrified, Kelly finds herself in a free-climbing chase up a freezing mountain, pursued by the group of murderous men after the evidence. If she’s to escape this deadly game of cat and mouse she must dig deep, do all she can to survive, and climb.

It really is quite something just how quickly The Ledge derails itself and it's down to the reason events are set in motion. Character motivations have to be believable in films like this and they just aren't here, escalating to such a ridiculous point with both sexual assault and murder both just glossed over rather unforgivably. It's disappointing because the concept is there but the execution just isn't, Tom Boyle's writing nearly falling off the same ledge Kelly finds herself stuck on while Howard J. Ford's direction is so flat there's no life brought to proceedings.

Coming to the cast, Brittany Ashworth gives a dogged performance as Kelly fights for survival, doing most of the heavy-lifting in the film in the process. Ben Lamb gets the incredibly mean-spirited and villainous role to sink his teeth into and it's one that the film doesn't justify the existence of enough for me. Again, it all comes down to the motivation of these characters and I just didn't buy it. 

All in all, The Ledge is a disappointing affair, promising so much but failing to deliver any quality in regards to tension and suspense. Just go and watch Cliffhanger instead.

Verdict: ★½