Review: The Gorge
Released this past weekend on Apple TV+, The Gorge tries to combine romance, sci-fi, and action, but its generic plot elements outweigh its more interesting elements.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller play elite snipers recruited to monitor two watchtowers on either side of a massive gorge for a year. They are told to keep whatever is in the gorge from coming out and to not make contact with the other side, but Drasa (Taylor-Joy) makes contact via written signs, which Levi (Teller) reciprocates. A budding romance develops between the two. Events force the pair into the gorge’s depths, where they find a nightmare region full of deadly creatures and hidden secrets. The Gorge is at its best when it’s in the titular gorge and goes fully weird and horrific. The main threat, the “hollow men,” is an interesting design that is not your typical zombies or demons and features more plant-like features similar to the infected of The Last of Us. There are other bizarre creatures and creepy locations that the pair explore. It’s a little derivative of The Upside Down from Stranger Things, but it’s still more interesting than the acts that bookend the sections in the gorge. The movie could have benefited from trimming and condensing some of the first act to get into the actual gorge sooner. Given his past films, the more horrific elements seem much more in director Scott Derickson’s wheelhouse, and I would have loved it if it got even weirder and horrific instead of how the movie plays out.
I don’t think it’s possible for Anya Taylor-Joy not to be excellent, and she carries most of the movie as the more charismatic and engaging part of the movie’s romantic pair. Drasa has so much more personality and a far more interesting backstory, and Miles Teller’s Levi can’t compare. Teller mostly broods and has a much more generic backstory, and even an interest in poetry doesn’t help make him feel like an interesting romantic partner to Drasa. Teller was fun in Top Gun: Maverick channeling Anthony Edwards, so I think the writing and character beats let him down here. Sigourney Weaver also makes an appearance, but it feels like a total waste of her talents as she doesn’t have much to do, and she’s basically in the same role she had in Cabin in the Woods.
Despite some intriguing horror elements and a strong performance from Anya Taylor-Joy, The Gorge ultimately feels like a missed opportunity, weighed down by generic storytelling and an uneven romance.
