The Ledge: Movie Review

Suspend your disbelief.

I always appreciate it when filmmakers can make a compelling movie set in essentially one location, but The Ledge is hanging from some very precarious threads. It has all the ingredients of a good story: our heroine is a very strong, very tough girl who isn’t going to let a group of douche bros get away with murder. Her main obstacle is literally the side of the cliff with one ledge she can stand one. And the villains, four asshole friends, who are my main source of frustration.		2022 Directed by: Howard J. Ford Screenplay by: Tom Boyle Starring: Brittany Ashworth, Ben Lamb
The alpha male of the group, Joshua (Ben Lamb), likes raping women because that’s just how much of an asshole he is, and his three friends are so apologetic for him that they literally commit murder to try to cover up his rape. Not a spoiler because that’s the basic premise from the opening scene. Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) the surviving girl who starts out likely looking for justice very quickly turns into a goal of survival. She’s a better climber than the boys, but she’s climbing for her life and loses gear quickly and is stuck on a ledge since the boys have already committed on murder and have no problem committing another. As a tale of survival, it is compelling. Kelly is smart and innovative, perhaps a bit luckier than most viewers would be willing to believe but she needs luck considering how quickly these four “normal” guys turned into pure evil (minutes, essentially). Guys, a bit of advice, when one friend commits rape, don’t remain friends with him. You don’t have to do everything he tells you to. You can just get in your car and drive away. Let the girls live. I’m rarely one to complain when movies are too bright, but the beginning of the movie was shot very unnaturally. It’s not uncommon to start thrillers with bright sunny days as a contrast to the evil that’s about to unfold, but it was too bright here. A contrast that was too extreme. The cinematography got significantly better on the side of the mountain – not surprising since it’s clear that’s the movie they were gearing up for, but a nice progression. Perhaps mountain climbers will get more out of the movie than I did. To an untrained spectator, it seems mostly unbelievable, but it’s possible risk-takers like Kelly have a better grasp of their limits than I do. A lot of it seems out of reach, but Kelly is a well-crafted character and a much better actor than her male counterparts, but those actors are playing guys who commit murder just to cover up a rape. The Ledge is compelling as a female survivor story set on the side of a mountain, but some parts definitely seem out of reality.

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