Here’s our review of The Ledge, a new action thriller starring Brittany Ashworth and directed by Howard J Ford.
For a good chunk of the action thriller The Ledge, any thought of the resources it must have been made with sits firmly in the background. In particular, after a bumpy start, the film becomes – for a sizeable part of its running time – a chase movie. Not a sideways chase, though: a chase that involves clambering up the side of a 10,000ft rock face, with no safety net.
The setup is the film at its most clunky: a group of four young men and two young women are away on a mountain climbing expedition, for different reasons. One of the women, Sophie, heads off for an early night, only for –sigh – one of the men to try and force himself on her. It’s a chain of events that leads to her murder, and a premise that feels straight out of the 1980s.
After this first act, though, the film comes to life. Director Howard J Ford, working from a script by Tom Boyle, stages a compelling game of cat and mouse, as Brittany Ashworth’s Kelly scrambles up the rock, with the quartet of men in pursuit. It’s really quite tense, and very well done. The title of the film does suggest where we’ll end up, but it’s not quite that straightforward. Backed by thumping music from Imran Ahmad and photography from Vladimir Ilic that makes the most of the scenery – there are more wide shots of people up mountains than I was expecting – there’s an engaging film at the core of this.
It does slow down, though, and as we move towards a conclusion, things becomes more routine. It’s never dull, but the ending’s never in much doubt. Flashbacks try to add emotional heft, with limited success – and show the film’s at its best when pared back. Thankfully, it is just that for a solid chunk of the running time, and there’s enough here to fill a modest 86 minutes.
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