The Gorge Review: Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy's Action-Romance Is Silly but Engaging

Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) have important jobs to do, even if neither knows exactly what that job is. Both highly skilled snipers, they sit on opposite sides of the mist-covered chasm that gives The Gorge its title with vague instructions to keep an eye on things, check in with headquarters every once in a while, and count the days until someone shows up to end their one-year stints. Sure, sometimes weird noises emerge from below; there's a reason it's rumored to be a gateway to hell. But it's mostly a pretty boring job, making it all the more difficult for Levi and Drasa to adhere to a strict rule: They're not supposed to talk to one another. He's an American, she's a Lithuanian employed by Russia, and the two sides seem to have reached a chilly understanding about making sure whatever's inside the gorge stays there. But tedium and high-powered binoculars allow Levi and Drasa to strike up a fun flirtation built around hand-written signs, displays of sharpshooting skills, and blaring Ramones songs — with the occasional interruption from violent abominations emerging from below.

Streaming services' attempts to compete with big-budget theatrical features have left them littered with the half-forgotten remains of titles like The Gray Man and the Rebel Moon series. Formulas that work on the big screen tend to collapse when translated to the small one. But while streamers aren't natural homes for mammoth blockbusters, they can work extremely well for scaled down, finely polished B-movies, like the smart alien invasion film No One Will Save You or the Predator prequel Prey, each of which might have fit nicely into multiplexes but didn't feel reduced by debuting on streaming. 

7.1

The Gorge

at Apple TV+

Like

• The smart execution of a silly but engaging premise

Dislike

• Once the mystery vanishes the film becomes pretty familiar

Add to that list The Gorge. Directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange) and scripted by Zach Dean, the film pays homage to — and, in its best moments, does right by — two genres at once, working as both an action film (with a coating of horror on top) and a rom-com, albeit one in which the two could-be lovers bond over military hardware and survival techniques rather than, say, meeting cute outside a coffee shop. Levi and Darsa might not be ordinary people, but Teller and Taylor-Joy make them feel both real and vulnerable, never mind how much firepower they pack. The two leads develop a nice chemistry a little bit at a time. When one decides to cross the gorge to get to the other — never mind the yawning abyss and fearsome beasts below — it makes sense.

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The relationship between the two, coupled with Derrickson's sure-handed action direction, works well enough to paper over some of the film's shortcomings. The mystery of what's at the base of the gorge, for instance, is better than the revelation, which feels better suited to a video game. (Their foes are appropriately creepy, however.) The setup seems to want to say something about international divisions and the consequences of war, though what remains unclear. Sigourney Weaver gets wasted in a stock bad guy role. But when The Gorge keeps its focus on charismatic star-crossed lovers falling in love as they fight off a dreadful threat, which is most of the time, it's every bit the diversion anyone intrigued by that description would want it to be. Everyone involved clearly understands that the combination of a catchy premise, a tight focus, and A-list talent can give viewers drive-in movie thrills without leaving home.

Premieres: Friday, Feb. 14 on Apple TV+
Who's in it: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy
Who's behind it: Scott Derrickson
For fans of: Action movies, monster movies, unlikely romances