Naomi Watts in Infinite Storm by director Małgorzata SzumowskaPhoto: Bleecker Street
Joel and Ethan Coen definitely understood the impact on an audience of telling them, as they subversively did with 1996’s Fargo, that what they were about to see was “based on a true story.” Using these words helped formulate and articulate a specific expectation.
Infinite Storm, a very different breed of film than the Coens’ dark comedic crime drama, illustrates this fact quite well. A very well made but persistently confusing survival film starring Naomi Watts, this misinterpreted attempt does itself a disservice by claiming that its non-fiction books are so prominent for its promotion and opening credits, and then repeatedly flogging them .
Directed by Małgorzata Szumowska (Never Gonna Snow Again), the film tells the story of Pam Bales (Watts), a New Hampshire woman who embarks on a six-hour circular hike to the unpredictable summit of Mt. Washington. When the predicted bad weather arrives early, bringing snow and strong winds with it, she decides to turn back.
However, when Pam sees sneaker prints in the fallen snow, she reverses course and encounters a stranded, unresponsive and hypothermic man she calls “John” (Billy Howle). Haunted by her personal loss, Pam grabs her well-stocked supplies and attempts to lead him down the mountain. Along the way, John, clearly driven by desperation, becomes a bit more communicative but remains largely uncooperative, raising viewers’ questions about life-saving assistance and appropriate risk.
C+
Infinite Storm
director
Malgorzata Szumowska
to water
Naomi Watts, Billy Howle, Denis O’Hare, Parker Sawyers
In a way, Infinite Storm fits alongside 2019’s The Wolf Hour and last year’s The Desperate Hour in Watt’s recent filmography, each offering a portrait of an isolated, single woman grappling with intense, psychologically destabilizing circumstances. Watts has also previously explored disaster and survival in JA Bayona’s The Impossible, but this is a much more streamlined affair, guided by her character’s point of view. Howle (On Chesil Beach) is little more than a goatee-wearing icicle for most of the film, though he does navigate the one scene most important to his character with ease.
However, it is on Watts’ shoulders that Infinite Storm is otherwise dormant. Her talent for conveying swallowed pain and deep regret surpasses the script’s simpler depictions. What keeps a viewer interested in Infinite Storm is Watts’ controlled performance and direction of the film.
There is a delicately balanced sense of realism and lyricism in the work of Szumowska, whose films won two Grand Jury Silver Bears at the Berlin Film Festival. Working with cinematographer and frequent collaborator Michal Englert (credited as co-director in the credits), Szumowska creates a highly eventful film. Intelligent shot selection and camerawork are aided by Ben Baird’s swirling sound design, giving Infinite Storm the feel of a full-scale engineering marvel, particularly during the exterior passages that make up the bulk of the 98-minute runtime. With one possible exception (a close-up of a New Hampshire Live Free Or Die license plate), it eschews all beefy survivalist clichés, instead striking an effective balance between capturing nature’s howling, invincible brutality and conveying the inner feelings of one Woman trying to navigate it.
Still, Infinite Storm feels too much like the dramatic version of a meandering anecdote from a friend who can’t be interrupted. The film, adapted by Joshua Rollins from a 2010 newspaper article by Ty Gagne, illustrates the difference between a story well told and a story well thought out. It doesn’t necessarily spoil much to say that Infinite Storm eventually leaves the mountain, which is the point at which Rollins tries to unpack and make sense of things after indulging in plenty of uncomplicated rescue mode. But it feels like a fundamental misrepresentation of the narrative, a late arrival of human connections.
Neverending Tempest demonstrates Szumowska’s talent as a director, but it also offers an important reminder of the inherent limitations of cinematic storytelling: sometimes just because the truth is convincing, it’s even better to print the legend.