[Film Review] The Ledge (2022)

The Ledge (2022) is a survival story that wants to be Frozen (2010) meets The Descent (2005) meets a slasher.

The film opens with friends Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) and Sophie (Anaïs Parello) preparing for a challenging climb, in memory of Kelly’s fiance who died on the same expedition a year ago. They meet a group of four men - in contention for the title of Biggest Asshole in the Universe - and they decide to all have a drink together. “One drink” quickly turns into “attempted rape and murder” and Sophie is killed. Kelly catches the act on film, which provokes the men to chase her. She escapes up the dangerous mountain, with very little climbing gear. The majority of the film takes place on the side of a mountain, the men right on Kelly’s heels.

This sounds like (and looks like, based on the trailer) an exciting cat-and-mouse survival thriller. And there are moments that deliver on that promise. But the film as a whole falls off a cliff, if you will allow the pun. The writing and performances range from weak to cringey. The characters and the exposition are shallow. The beginning of the story is a speed-run through toxic masculinity to get to the survival portion of the film, which is my biggest problem with the movie. To convince the audience to quickly dislike the men and side with Kelly, the men are presented as homophobic, mysognisityic, violent liars. Via a conversation that serves as an exposition dump, we learn that the men feel obligated to hang out with one another because of some brutal crime they committed long ago. (Later in the film, we learn that it was a racist crime, which feels like a lazy detail to remind us of why we hate them.) When one of them hurts Sophie, they all agree to kill her, instead of calling the police or getting her medical attention, because they don’t want to get in legal trouble. They are all adults who should know better, and one of them is a lawyer, so to use the same setup as I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) feels unrealistic. 

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And speaking of Sophie, the treatment of the female characters isn’t any better than the men. Sophie and Kelly’s friendship is introduced to us through a tickle fight, because that’s how girls show friendship, of course! Kelly is quiet, demure, pure, and level-headed, a Final Girl template if there ever was one. Sophie is presented as a vapid, airheaded party girl, getting hammered with with the boys and taunting the one who eventually tries to rape her. The film implies that Sophie is responsible for what happens to her, and that is shocking and surprising to me in 2022.  

What’s frustrating is that this film is so close to being a fun, thrilling watch for a group of friends. You don’t have to worry about too much plot, and some of the melodramatic flashbacks to Kelly and her fiance are laughably saccharine. There are gorgeous shots of the mountains, and impressive physical stunts. The landscape offers thrilling tension. But it’s impossible to ignore that thoughtless use of bigoted lanaguage, and the tired formula to get the audience to hate a man by making him commit violence against a woman. That setup can work well (see most rape revenge films) but it needs to be done with care and thought. If you give this a watch, maybe just fast forward until Kelly is on the rock, and just watch the chase play out. With the sound off.

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