Sugar mountain4/30/2023 ![]() ![]() These problems are compounded by a largely inexperienced cast who fail to sell their character’s internal lives. ![]() If this were excised, audience imaginations could run wild, making the eventual revelation of what actually happened to him less of a damp squib. Worst of all, the film’s primary source of tension (what’s happening to the offscreen Miles) is totally punctured by Gray cold-opening the film with shots of him passing out on a snowy peak. Characters begin acting like morons, doing things like loudly yelling “the whole thing is fake!” at each other seconds after the police chief leaves the room, or having bizarre spiritual awakenings that come and go at the behest of the screenwriter. Sadly, writer Abe Pogos and director Richard Gray quickly skate over this promising premise and end up mired in melodramatic twists and B-movie cliche. The best scenes of the film come as we sense their growing guilt at exploiting their town’s goodwill, despite unconvincingly telling each other that their fraud is “bringing people together.” As family and friends become injured in the search for Miles, the tension ratchets up as the pair realize they’re in over their heads. The core idea of Liam and Lauren struggling to corral a media circus, manipulating a search party, fending off police suspicions, worrying about Miles and dealing with their own feelings for each other makes for decent drama. Unfortunately, reality soon gets in the way, foreseen by Liam sensibly pointing out that Miles has “no survival skills and no sense of direction” and adding “you’ll get lost and die.” On top of that, Liam actually has the hots for Lauren, they’re being pressured for money by a towering, sadistic lunk (Jason Momoa), Lauren’s dad is the extremely suspicious Chief of Police (Cary Elwes in a stupid floppy haircut), there’s secret gambling debts to contend with and, oh yeah, Miles isn’t fake-lost, he’s lost-lost. With Aron Ralston (of 127 Hours fame) firmly on their minds, they foresee a media storm that they’ll milk to the fullest when Miles ‘miraculously’ returns a fortnight later, having actually spent his time in the wilderness hiding in a well supplied cave. Simple, right? Miles storms off into the wilderness and when he doesn’t return, Liam to raises the alarm in town. The next day the brothers will go for a hike on the titular Sugar Mountain to try and clear the air, but get into a ‘fight’ midway up. Here’s the plan: cocky and confident Miles will get into a staged bar fight with the quieter Liam over Lauren. Faced with repossession of their dead mother’s fishing boat (due to a Harvard concert pianist losing a couple of fingers after slipping on the deck), brothers Liam and Miles (Shane Coffey and Drew Roy), together with Miles’ girlfriend Lauren (Haley Webb) cook up a missing person hoax. Sugar Mountain‘s core premise is decent enough.
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