The Gorge (2025) Dir: Scott Derrickson
- Ridley Coote
- Apr 7
- 2 min read
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Scott Derrickson's Apple TV original action film hasn't exactly set the world on fire since its release, but I must admit, I was intrigued by its mysterious premise. Apple haven't exactly inspired with their film projects thus far, although some of their TV series have been excellent, so my expectations were kept to a modest minimum.
I thought that the cinematography was a mixed bag. The film was very visually dark at various points, which felt awfully unnecessary. It left me straining to see what was going on, even in a dark room. I did, on a more positive note, find some of the more visible scenes fairly well-shot though. I liked the idea of what was in the titular gorge, but I'd have liked it to have been a little more practical and less CGI.
The screenplay was pretty messy. It was littered with horrendous exposition dumps and drunken dialogue, which felt so lazily written. There was just no nuance in the script at all. Not to mention, it lacked any pace or rhythm at all - it was slow and monotonous, especially the first half. It also didn't help that the story felt very clearly like a feature length rip-off of 'The Last Of Us', but not as good.
Miles Teller gave an acceptable, but not overly exciting performance in this leading role. I found some of his acting a little dull, but, admittedly, he wasn't helped by the mediocre script. His action scenes were solid enough too - he certainly acted the part, in that sense. I'm not Teller's biggest fan, I'm not even quite sure what it is about his acting that I'm not convinced by, but he was adequate enough here.
I wasn't a huge fan of Anya Taylor-Joy's accent in the film, but the rest of her acting was solid enough. I've seen her do a lot better, which made this performance seem a little worse, but it wasn't unwatchable. I thought she did the physical side of her performance very well - everything she did had a little personality to it.
With such a limited cast, the only other performances of any real note were provided by Sigourney Weaver and Sope Dirisu. In fairness to each of them, I thought they both acquitted themselves fairly well. I actually thought that the film could've done with a little more of both.
Overall, this was fine for a one-off watch. It had some interesting moments, but it struggled to create any sort of momentum, and relied on its brief moments of action to provide its entertainment. I wouldn't say this was an overtly bad film, but it never reached anything about a middling quality at any point. Either way, it wasn't the worst film I've ever watched, though I also won't be hastening to rewatch it anytime soon.
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