'Into the Mind' is an intense, unrelenting, and at times difficult to stick with film. All the same, for those who want to sit down and watch a film that requires a little thought (a rarity in the extreme sports genre) it is a highly rewarding hour or so.
Straight off the bat, this is not meant to be a ski-movie, but rather a movie in which the central character happens to be an elite skier.
We follow him as he tries, fails, and then tries again to conquer the goal he has set himself. In aid of this we are treated to several flash-backs and cut-aways which illustrate his state of mind, his hopes, fears, aspirations and beliefs, as well as the path he has trodden (literally and figuratively) to get to where he is.
All in all these scenes are highly effective, using extreme sports (in the main part skiing, but also touching on others) to illustrate the battle we have with nature and our own will during the course of our lives. However, the film-makers tend to take it a little too far adding symbol into symbol, allegory into allegory, with one too many wildlife shots, one too many rotating landscape sequences, and not enough human interest. This in one sense is understandable, as the stock in trade for more narrative extreme sports movies is just to cut in fly-on-the-wall footage or the protagonists talking to camera. 'In the Mind' is definitely trying something new, and largely succeeding, but in places it feels like the film-makers just finished their "101 in Image Metaphor" at film school, and are trying to bundle in as much as they can.
Speaking of image... this film looks AWESOME. Clearly they had a budget for the highest quality of cameras, and had the people who knew how to use them. It is the kind of footage that brings tears to the eyes, and is so good that most of the time, even if you don't get/like what the film is trying to do narratively, it makes it worth watching anyway.
Skiing wise this film is also mouth droppingly good... in my own subjective opinion, i've not been this wowed by the things they are skiing and how they are skiing them since snowboard film 'The Art of Flight' and Sherpas Cinemas' debut 'All I Can'.
That said, I'm only giving this film a 7. Why? Whatever the producers might say, it's clearly a ski film. It has been marketed as a ski film. Although there is some amazing skiing in the film, I don't think the film makers have managed the balance between providing enough awesome skiing and telling the narrative story they wanted to. Considering that ultimately the protagonist decides not to take on the quest that is driving him, there is no pay off or climax in terms of the amazing line we are waiting to see at the end. For those who have bought into the premise of the film, that's not too much of a problem, but for those who started watching just for great skiing, and stuck with it in the hope that at the end the guy would smash the monster mountain, that might come as a massive let down. I started watching this film as a ski film, and it was luck that I happen to like art film as well, but I don't think I can recommend this to a lot of my ski friends, and that has to speak volumes.
Straight off the bat, this is not meant to be a ski-movie, but rather a movie in which the central character happens to be an elite skier.
We follow him as he tries, fails, and then tries again to conquer the goal he has set himself. In aid of this we are treated to several flash-backs and cut-aways which illustrate his state of mind, his hopes, fears, aspirations and beliefs, as well as the path he has trodden (literally and figuratively) to get to where he is.
All in all these scenes are highly effective, using extreme sports (in the main part skiing, but also touching on others) to illustrate the battle we have with nature and our own will during the course of our lives. However, the film-makers tend to take it a little too far adding symbol into symbol, allegory into allegory, with one too many wildlife shots, one too many rotating landscape sequences, and not enough human interest. This in one sense is understandable, as the stock in trade for more narrative extreme sports movies is just to cut in fly-on-the-wall footage or the protagonists talking to camera. 'In the Mind' is definitely trying something new, and largely succeeding, but in places it feels like the film-makers just finished their "101 in Image Metaphor" at film school, and are trying to bundle in as much as they can.
Speaking of image... this film looks AWESOME. Clearly they had a budget for the highest quality of cameras, and had the people who knew how to use them. It is the kind of footage that brings tears to the eyes, and is so good that most of the time, even if you don't get/like what the film is trying to do narratively, it makes it worth watching anyway.
Skiing wise this film is also mouth droppingly good... in my own subjective opinion, i've not been this wowed by the things they are skiing and how they are skiing them since snowboard film 'The Art of Flight' and Sherpas Cinemas' debut 'All I Can'.
That said, I'm only giving this film a 7. Why? Whatever the producers might say, it's clearly a ski film. It has been marketed as a ski film. Although there is some amazing skiing in the film, I don't think the film makers have managed the balance between providing enough awesome skiing and telling the narrative story they wanted to. Considering that ultimately the protagonist decides not to take on the quest that is driving him, there is no pay off or climax in terms of the amazing line we are waiting to see at the end. For those who have bought into the premise of the film, that's not too much of a problem, but for those who started watching just for great skiing, and stuck with it in the hope that at the end the guy would smash the monster mountain, that might come as a massive let down. I started watching this film as a ski film, and it was luck that I happen to like art film as well, but I don't think I can recommend this to a lot of my ski friends, and that has to speak volumes.