Nordwand 2008

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Stolzl makes the smallest details loom large. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The historical backdrop is fascinating and an important part of this story, but there's a pervasive sense that director Philipp Stolzl and his screenwriters soft-pedal it as much as possible in order to exalt their heroes. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Five writers were responsible for the script, and the characters consequently have one or two generic characteristics and no inner life of their own; they've been committeed to death. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The result is terrifically suspenseful even if one already knows the outcome. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: While the movie is never dull, its romantic fodder doesn't do justice to any period at all. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: A straightforward, wickedly suspenseful Man vs. Nature saga of the type that rarely gets made any more. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Kolja Brandt's cinematography is stunning, but can't rescue the end from some wince-inducing "Ain't no mountain high enough" heroics. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: North Face" is something of an old-fashioned epic shot with modern wisdom and technique, a man vs. nature flick that also weighs the importance of the individual vs. the social while exposing the mean cost of vicarious thrills. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: The mountaineers climb for reasons that have little to do with nationalism - reasons the film clumsily attempts to articulate in words. It's far more successful conveying those inspirations with stunning images of them scaling daunting heights. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Kolja Brandt's hand-held cinematography and Philipp Stolzl's direction keep the suspense level high. Unfortunately, somebody decided to insert a superfluous love story involving a completely fabricated female photojournalist. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: This white-knuckle adventure is a literal and metaphoric cliff-hanger that gets a spectacular foothold on an unforgiving mountain. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Some of the shots must have been made on sets. None of that matters. I was on the side of that mountain all the way. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film puts us on the cruelly beautiful mountain alongside the climbers as they inch up treacherous limestone crags and unstable ice fields. The fear of falling is palpable. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Philipp Stolzl worked in the same dangerous conditions as the original climbers, and we can feel the chill and peril in our bones. It's a shame, then, that the screenwriter, unlike the camera crew and the characters, was afflicted with such timidity. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Cleverly playing on the genre's propagandistic ties to the Third Reich, the film reflects the tragic arc of National Socialism in each ominous crevasse and in every grandiloquent gesture. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: It's the snow-bound scenery that really steals the show. Read more

Brian Miller, Village Voice: Climbers who know the famous tale needn't be warned of spoilers: Shot on location, the film is slow, realistic, and excruciating in its latter stages. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The word "gripping" doesn't do it justice. Read more