‘The Gorge’ Is Better At Romance Than Action
Image: Source: Apple TV+
Love finds a way of blooming in the most unexpected places. We all hope for the perfect meet cute, perhaps a charmingly awkward interaction in a grocery store or catch of the eyes out in public. For elite snipers Levi and Drasa in The Gorge, it turns out the perfect way to meet someone new is by taking a guard posting on either side of a mysterious gorge filled with horrors beyond human comprehension.
The Gorge, directed by Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone, Doctor Strange), is a cocktail of action, romance and horror that showcases the power of human connection in even the most remote places, even if there is a foggy chasm between them and a mystery about what exactly it is they’re guarding.
It’s this first part of The Gorge, as the romance between its two leads blossoms, despite them not being allowed contact. Movie stars Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy play Levi and Drasa respectively, and their splendid chemistry together is surprising. It’s extra impressive considering the first part of their relationship is conveyed entirely with written messages seen through binoculars, yet it’s still thoroughly charming.
When the two finally meet in real life and directly share the screen, the sparks continue flying to the point it’s easy to forget that Levi and Drasa are the last lines of defence against horrible creatures trying to climb out of the Gorge. That contrast between their intensely secretive message and the feelings they begin to develop for each other is what makes the first half of The Gorge a genuinely endearing watch. It’s not difficult to see the film as a response to COVID, as well all sought to find connections through proxy and protect ourselves throughout 2020 and 2021.
The Gorge takes a nose dive in its second half
Then, predictably, the unlikely couple find themselves stuck in the titular geographic feature and have to fight their way through seemingly endless amounts of ‘Hollow Men’ – essentially hyper-intelligent tree zombies. The Gorge takes a real nosedive in quality at this point, switching gears from its unconventional romantic storyline to pretty standard, competently made action-horror fare that feels more like a video game than a movie (maybe thanks to its heavy reliance on CGI, too).
This shooting-heavy section of The Gorge also manages to remove a lot of the mystery that made the film’s earlier tinges of horror so effective by overexplaining its fictional history, which is about what you’d expect. Scientists try to play God, they accidentally create horrors beyond human comprehension and have to quarantine their mistake. It’s hardly reinventing the wheel, as seen by the fact that the entire backstory of The Gorge is on a dusty old reel of film titled ‘GOD FORGIVE US’.
As it moves further and further from its initially interesting mix of romance and horror, it’s hard to deny that the film becomes measurably less interesting. Despite the rising stakes of the narrative, the anxiety of the action can never quite capture the tension of two soon-to-be lovers getting to know each other for the first time in highly unusual circumstances.
The Gorge is still a satisfying watch for its extremely solid first hour; Teller and Taylor-Joy are genuinely really great together, proving that bonafide movie stars can always elevate the material that they’re in. It’s just a shame that the film moves on from what makes it so charming at first without ever replacing it with something of equal quality.
★★½
The Gorge is streaming now on Apple TV+.
