Touching the Void 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: An edge-of- the-seat, what-else- could-go- wrong thriller with the building momentum of fiction. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: One of the most gripping and harrowing looks at mountain climbing ever filmed. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: An amazing, mind-boggling story. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: So well cast and well captured is Touching the Void that it suspends disbelief, making us feel as if we're actually watching Simpson's own icy version of Dante's Inferno. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Read more

Craig Welch, Seattle Times: Novelists like to say that fiction captures quiet truths nonfiction simply can't. Touching the Void offers up a powerful counterargument. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Void is smart enough to let the story tell itself. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: While the tale is remarkable enough to compel our interest, this is a case of the story carrying the filmmaking rather than the other way around. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: A tense, well-made tale about excruciating experiences. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Fun is too casual a word for the power of this movie. But there are deep pleasures to be had in that wildly perilous wrong adventure. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A daring half-dramatized, half-documentary film adaptation of the best-selling book by Joe Simpson. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A white-knuckle adventure that combines the suspense of great drama with the veracity of documentary. Read more

John Patterson, L.A. Weekly: Breathtaking stuff that freezes the toes, harrows the soul and turns the viewer's seat into a foot-wide ledge over a yawning chasm. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: It's a story so compelling that, as they say in the wire services, it practically tells itself. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Most movies of this type re-create the action far from the actual scene of the crime, but Macdonald has invented a new subgenre: a docudrama in which the docu and the drama are equally authentic. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Void offers some remarkable scenery and no small amount of drama. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: The photography is awesome, inspiring many 'How did they get that shot?' moments. Read more

Dave Kehr, New York Times: Kevin Macdonald's disappointing film recounts the disastrous 1985 attempt that Joe Simpson and Simon Yates made on the 21,000 foot Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: For a movie like this, touching the void just isn't enough. It has to touch the audience, too. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: British filmmaker Kevin Macdonald has blended elements of docudrama and documentary into a satisfying whole that will keep even the most stoic movie-goer gripping the armrest throughout. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Touching the Void is the most harrowing movie about mountain climbing I have seen, or can imagine. Read more

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: Survival stories tied to extreme activities always come with caveats ... All cynicism vanishes once Touching the Void, a docudrama by Oscar- winning director Kevin Macdonald, charts climber Joe Simpson's excruciating descent. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: While some of the moviemaking looks very conventional, I have enormous respect for the camera operator and wouldn't blame him a bit if at times he worried more about stepping into a 300-foot crevasse than in getting the most original angle. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Macdonald has done an astonishing job of recreating the climbers' saga of disaster and triumph. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Nail-biting. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Touching The Void takes us to both heaven and hell, and knowing the final result only serves to increase our sense of awe at the achievement. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: As a meditation on extreme human endeavour, character, friendship and the mysteries revealed by facing death, it provides much food for thought. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Awesome and harrowing. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Though matter- of-factly presented, Simpson's endurance test exceeds the imagination, and reanimates every blurbable cliche in the film reviewer's word bank. Read more