The Gorge
Starring: Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Streaming on AppleTV, available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

First Impression: “The Gorge” is a genre-bending thrill ride that keeps you guessing what’s coming next. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy’s chemistry carry the movie even when things take strange and unexpected turns.
Well, this movie really left me stunned with how many left turns it took. It starts out as a very generic action/spy thriller where two trained mercenaries (Teller and Taylor Joy) are hired by their very secretive employers to guard a mysterious outpost for a year. Each mercenary will be assigned to a specific tower, Tower 1 and Tower 2, located over a deathly gorge. They cannot communicate with one another through telephone or computer. They can only send notes written in a sketchbook that they can view through binoculars. Their exact reason for guarding this mysterious place is never explained to them, so they, along with the audience, have to see how things play out.

So if you’re following me, it starts out as a generic spy thriller that all of a sudden morphs into a quirky romantic comedy 30 minutes into the movie and kind of stays there for the next half hour. I’m not saying it was bad, it was fun and interesting to go from very serious Military Ops type of film to a Rom Com where the two actors are sending love notes and having distanced dance parties. This probably would not have worked if it weren’t for the chemistry of Teller and Taylor Joy, who carry the film so well, whose characters are well defined, and whose backstories you care about.

In the last half of the film we are genre bent for the third time. The true nature of their mission is revealed and we go into nuclear apocalypse territory. I won’t give away the ending because I liked the film enough to want you to guess what happens.

“The Gorge” is an ambitious film that doesn’t follow any set formula that we have seen in Action Adventure genre films over the last decade or Superhero films that rely on played out tropes and tired story lines. You may end up disliking the disjointed nature of the film, but I for one am a fan of originality and fresh storytelling. Overall “The Gorge” was an experience that is worth taking.

Final Verdict 4 out of 5 stars