Three Peaks (Drei Zinnen)
(Germany/Italy, 94 min.)
Written and directed by Jan Zabeil
Starring: Alexander Fehling, Bérénice Bejo,
Arian Montgomery
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| Courtesy of TIFF |
Three
Peaks is bound to be dubbed the European The Mountain Between Us. Like the Kate
Winslet/Idris Elba survival drama, which is also playing the Festival, this
wintry white-knuckler sees two people stranded on a mountain where they must
find common ground in order to survive. The lost duo of Three Peaks is a pair of strangers of sorts: Aaron (Alexander
Fehling) and Tristan (Arian Montgomery), the latter of whom is the son of
Aaron’s girlfriend Lea (Bérénice Bejo). This fateful trip puts the future of
this new family on a precipice as Aaron must decide to accept this child as
part of his life, while Tristan must make an equally life-altering choice to
view Aaron as a father figure. That’s an awfully big mountain to climb between
them.
The saying goes that two’s company and
three’s a crowd, and the idyllic weekend gives way to cabin fever. There’s a
natural progression to the episodic action around the cottage. Mousetraps
clank; saws slice wood; Tristan tests patience; Tristan draws blood; Tristan
hinders nookie. The foreboding action and imagery becomes unnerving as Zabeil
plays with the pace and alternates between restlessly drawn out scenes and
quick cuts in which the characters, mostly Aaron, release pent-up energy.
The tension simmers as Aaron broaches the
subject of parenting and his relationship with Tristan. Lea doesn’t like the
idea of Tristan seeing Aaron as his father, or calling him anything beyond his
given name, and her dismissive attitude of Aaron’s interest in being seen as
anything other than Tristan’s mother’s boyfriend doesn’t aid the situation.
Particularly when the events of the final act put both Aaron and Tristan in
danger, the slipperiness of this exchange underlies the urgency to bring them
both home safely.
The white-knuckler of a second act in Three Peaks brings both Aaron and
Tristan back to the mountain, which symbolically and portentously features
three jagged peaks united as one. Childish moves by both parties leave Aaron
and Tristan stuck on the mountain, enveloped in the threatening fog, with Lea
back home to fret about the fates of both her boys. Survival mode kicks in and Aaron
and Taylor must learn to see one another as more than proximal strangers. The
danger more menacing than the weather or the rugged mountainside, however, is
the oscillating trust between both parties. Can a boy and his unwanted father
figure be anything other than rivals for Lea’s affection?
Three
Peaks is unexpectedly intense for a film that
begins so innocently. Set up high in the rocky settings of the Italian
Dolomites, Three Peaks adeptly uses
atmosphere and pathetic fallacy to harness the ominous expansiveness and
inherent danger of the landscape to create a cloud of tension as thick as the
mist of the mountains that hangs atop the drama. The three strong performances
by Fehling, Bejo, and Montgomery provide a worthy set of wedges with which to
challenge loyalty and sympathy as the fate of the family clings for life.
Expect the unexpected as Three Peaks drops
us into the lives of these three characters for an idyll family holiday run
amok. Whatever you do, don’t forget to breathe.
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more TIFF coverage here.
