The Summit is a frustrating film because there is dynamic content on display throughout, but the enterprise is unfocused and flawed, undermining noble intentions and leaving an enormous amount of potential unrealized. It is a documentary concerning a troubled and, in the end, deadly expedition to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain, in the summer of 2008. Through interviews, photographs, and cinematic reenactments, several of the climbers are profiled (they are in turn a bitchy, charming, guarded, and soulful unit) and the lethal downfall of their adventure is depicted and debated. There are several scenes of awe-inspiring excitement and fear, capturing how insignificant human existence becomes in the outsize and unforgiving context of the mountain. In one such scene, an out-of-the-blue piece of falling ice emerges from the silence and the night to end a life of an unsuspecting Norwegian climber. He is there one second and gone forever the next. Ah, if only the film containing these memorable and piercing incidents were not plagued by so many structural and thematic defects.

The nonfiction storyline is presented, for reasons I cannot understand, out of chronological order. The summit is reached around 30 minutes in, then the music turns menacing as the dangerous descent begins. Then, however, the film cuts to several months earlier to show the early steps of the expedition. It is disorienting and grating, and I believe simply tracing point A to point B to point C in a straight line would have maximized the majesty and the suspense. Also unusual is the completely arbitrary inclusion of another story involving the first major bid to climb the mountain by Italians in the 1950s. These self-contained moments are not uninteresting, but they deserve their own film and are not served well when shoehorned into this one. They only function as a distraction.

The Summit also contends with what I regard as a type of internal conflict. Is it simply an adventure and survival story? Is it exploring the mystery of why climbers endanger themselves in the (perhaps vainglorious) pursuit of their lifestyle and sport? Is it a political expose intended to place blame and locate a protagonist and an antagonist within the expedition? One after the other, it tries its hand at each and is at its worst when the third question rises to the fore: South Koreans who declined to be interviewed are, in an uncomfortable way, cast as sinister and in over their head, whereas an Irishman who lost his life, and whose still-upset family members are interviewed, is positioned as mythic and noble. An Irish co-production, the film's strong-arm, cue-the-trumpets tactics to glorify him are unpersuasive, and it honestly left me convinced there is much more to the story of his final day of life.

Comparisons to the masterful Touching the Void, the story of a two-man climb gone very wrong in Peru, are hard to avoid. Minor by comparison, The Summit is nowhere near as adept in any conceivable area. The human drama is more involving and moving in Touching the Void, which is also simply more exciting as a piece of brutal high-altitude entertainment and without a doubt crafted with more care and intelligence as a documentary incorporating reenactments.

C+

Hm.