The Summit 2013

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: A pulse-pounding success. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: At once visually impressive and narratively unfocused. Read more

Nick Schager, AV Club: Director Nick Ryan dramatizes this horrific tale through a variety of hindsight interviews from survivors and the dead's loved ones, footage shot by the climbers during their mission, and staged recreations ... Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: A film that feels curiously hollow. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: First-time director Nick Ryan isn't entirely up to the challenge in "The Summit," but he does deliver some dramatic and visual highs in the attempt. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: There's something unsettling about a real-life tragedy presented as an action film; that the filmmakers never acknowledge this is more unsettling yet. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Nick Ryan's documentary The Summit pieces together the fateful expedition utilizing newsreel footage, new and old interviews with the climbers and their associates, and, regrettably, re-enactments. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: You have a tangled story being told by director Nick Ryan and writer Mark Monroe in a somewhat tangled way. The result isn't as much confusing as it is distracting. Read more

Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter: A gripping, cliffhanger document of a deadly trek up the most dangerous mountain on earth where 11 climbers lost their lives. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A complex and gut-clenching human drama that has the great advantage of all being true. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: I'm afraid it will only leave some audience members with the same nagging question I had at the beginning. Why on earth do people do this? Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Director Nick Ryan mixes in re-creations and actual footage to tell of an ill-fated climb involving an international group of established mountaineers. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Remarkably, The Summit achieves some of the same dizzying impact as Gravity -- by philosophical and psychological means, rather than special effects. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: At once repetitive and puzzling. There is a lot of finger-pointing. Assertions are made, theories offered, but not much in the way of certainty. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Ryan's film is visually stunning and viscerally powerful but nearly incoherent in its packaging of information. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Summit" is an impressive achievement, but there's a good reason to ask whether cameras are turning the planet into a playground for the reckless rich: because it's there. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The subject is fascinating and the cinematic punch afforded by peaks so massive, inspiring with their terrible beauty is a filmmaker's dream. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: As you watch these actors, you appreciate the endeavor the climbers went through all the more-and as triumph turns to tragedy, you feel the grief winding its way through your shaken nervous systems. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: It's a noble effort, but by wading into the murky waters of who acted heroically, and who, perhaps, did not, Ryan loses touch with the mountain itself ... Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's frustrating not to know exactly what occurred when, how and to whom. Of course, some of this is due to the fact that nobody really knows everything that happened, except, as someone notes, the mountain itself. Read more