Lost on a Mountain in Maine makes for quite a name as it narrates the true events of a 12-year-old boy who, once again, gets lost on his mountain in Maine. Sounds self-referential, but the moments in the film, make things clear. This new feature has most of the facts already available due to this filmable tale having been well-documented, but while it is extremely touching to read about, it is also not a pleasant tale: eleven year-old Donn Fendler went out for a family hike in Mount Katahdin in Maine, July, 1939, and after being separated from his relatives managed to live for nine long days without food, water, or even proper clothing. What an incredible story and how fortunate for the first-time feature filmmaker Andrew Boodhoo Kightlinger that he has chosen this rather safe and conventional approach to it.
Except for Donn’s backstory there is limited development given to the character. The backstory to Donn depicts the absolute connection he has with his father, who had grown silent due to the socioeconomic crisises around him. This aspect of the story was prevalent in the book as well dealing with the invisible strings of internal relations that twist the very perspective of a human being. A child with an absent father tries to bring materials and find his comb parents within the shallow constructs of his prohibitive society, and this is where the movie truly shines.
Lost on a Mountain in Maine presents itself as a relaxing family drama with an underlying Christian theme, rather than a gritty survival tale. The film knows its audience and doesn’t expect too much, yet it is able to deliver the details that invoke emotions and stir the tears on the right occasions.
In the US during the 1930s, terms such as toxic or unchecked masculinity did not exist in the lexicon as we understand it Forrest Fendler Paul Sparks had to deal with some hard situations just a couple of weeks behind. In the domestic sphere, notion of respect is upheld as he refers to his children as sirs and calls his wife ma’ams, his children think of him as a cold parent. Due to the Great Depression, which has affected him deeply, the most useful advice he provides to his children can be summarized as: “sometimes you can, and quite often, you have to get into a brawl.”
He has never loved the idea of Donald being away but only gets goaded in this hate when Donald has to cancel a planned fishing vacation owing to a last-minute work contract. To compensate for the lost time, he arranged a one-day tour to Mount Katahdin, the tallest peak in the state of Maine.
Sparks comes off well, as Donald, in his eyeless contortion which Central Casting cast onto this unfortunate figure who was meant to be a mannequin for cruel America and the life it gave his children. And, in this respect, along with Paradise, they earn points for making Donald not a Depression-era Great Santini but merely a person shaped by harsh circumstances. Perhaps his eventual realization that not only was this ‘how focused I was on trying to make him tough that I forgot to be his dad’ is rather cliche and direct, yet his predicament of balancing love and toughness for children creates at such a juicy family drama that will resolve in cliche fashion later anyway.
After the hike goes sideways and the panicky Donn starts making his way down the mountain Kightlinger, from time to time, breaks the flow with old recordings of interviews with Donn’s brother Ryan (who had a very strong feeling they wouldn’t be able to find him), mother Ruth, etc. Naturally, they interrupt the narrative history to a degree, yet since Donn’s torturous climb to the top is constructed in a very unfocused manner, these tangential moments act as a breath of fresh air and a reminder that Donn’s suffering was real.
In this survival drama, Luke David Blumm shines as a tenacious boy who manages to endure the harsh elements of 100,000 acres of wilderness, trekking through freezing temperatures, swatting flies, keeping away leeches, and subsisting solely on berries and raw fish. Donn’s fates appears so bleak to imagine, and Israeli cinematographer Idan Menin manages to film swooping helicopter shots in Hudson Valley, New York that reveal an abundance of dense trees that make finding the man seem almost impossible let alone the chances of his being alive.
Because the filmmakers never believe that Donn would survive this tragedy, they cannot present that aspect of this story the way The Grey and The Edge so masterfully do. Nor do they apply the technique of 127 Hours or The Revenant in relation to the spirit of the missing man’s parents. Iconcept, Fitzgerald’s character presents a typical depression era at the beginning of the film, as a woman who worries that every time the phone rings, “this could be the call,” as if one of her children were missing. But she decides to do something which involves more than just waiting, and this raises the chances of finding her son out when there is enough media coverage plus the right number of volunteers. Basically, the movie begins by portraying a very strict father only to focus on his transformation to a loving figure particularly after a near tragedy as well as the son’s evolved perspective about his father’s issues. The couple’s devastating nine days of hearing from each other’s presence were also separation from mental state and not only physical.
Lost on a Mountain in Maine is the coming-of-age story that is unforgettable, chronicling Fendler’s grit and determination as much as the relationship between Donn and his father. His simplistic condemnation of overt masculinity, sprinkled with vague pickings of faith and neighborliness, is good for few but not the dramatic knock-out needed. Perhaps it might have had a dramatic twist directed by its producer Sylvester Stallone. Instead, Kightlinger tells a simple, convenient, if quite well-done, survival story that is much easier to sit through than what Donn encountered on that dreadful mountain.
Watch Free Movies on Hurawatch