Based on Charles Martin’s novel, 2017’s The Mountain Between Us offers a story of survival among the elements. Strangers who meet at an airport in Idaho, surgeon Ben Bass (Idris Elba) and journalist Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) find themselves trapped by the weather.

Both encounter pressing reasons to head out, but canceled flights seem to leave them devoid of options. As a solution, they hire a small private plane to take them to Denver, where they can get transportation to their final destinations.

Unfortunately, their pilot Walter (Beau Bridges) suffers a stroke in-flight, and this causes the plane to crash in the mountains. Only Ben and Alex survive, and they need to figure out how to escape from their isolated, frozen location.

For some reason, I thought Mountain would mainly offer a romance, as I got the impression the film would focus on Love Among Tragedy. Maybe that came from reviews, as the trailer included on this Blu-ray concentrates on action and tension. Whatever the case, the notion Mountain would emphasize the interpersonal relationship between the leads stayed in my mind.

As it happens, Mountain tries to go both ways. While most of the film’s first half deals with adventure/survival, the second hour digs more into the connection between Ben and Alex.

And that becomes a drawback, as Mountain gradually loses steam the longer it goes. The first act fares pretty well, and the film manages to stage some good action scenes.

In particular, the plane crash scene proves harrowing, and other aspects of the challenges Ben and Alex confront offer excitement. When the film sticks with these elements, it works fairly well.

Unfortunately, Mountain becomes more pat and less engaging as it progresses. It tends closer to weepy Hallmark Channel fare, especially given the seemingly “doomed” nature of the Ben/Alex relationship.

This makes the end result feel awfully contrived. The romance never quite ignites, and we don’t ever care enough about the characters to genuinely care what happens to them.

With Elba and Winslet on-screen for virtually the film’s entirety, we get real talent at the core, and they do fine in their roles. That said, neither can elevate their underwritten parts – Elba and Winslet add life but they can’t carry the project on their own.

The effective first act creates viewer good will for a while, but Mountain becomes less and less involving as it goes. Outside of a few exciting action sequences, this feels like a fairly limp project.

The Mountain Between Us appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As expected, this became a strong visual presentation.

Sharpness worked well, as I detected virtually no signs of softness. Instead, the movie remained accurate and concise. I witnessed no jagged edges or moiré effects, and both edge haloes and print flaws remained absent.

In terms of colors, Mountain went with a chilly blue-oriented palette that matched the snowy setting, though interiors added some amber. These hues made sense for the story and the Blu-ray replicated them well.

Blacks seemed deep and dark, while shadows appeared smooth and clear. At all times, this turned into a pleasing image.

Though not an action extravaganza, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Mountain provided more kick than expected, mainly due to the involvement level during its many exterior scenes. Those used the snowy weather to create a vivid sense of environment that engulfed us in the material.

Music also used the five channels in an active way, and the smattering of more action-oriented scenes brought the mix to life in a vivid manner. In particular, the plane crash worked very well, and otjer segments boasted nice activity and involvement.

Audio quality excelled, with music that seemed vivid and full. Speech appeared natural and concise, while effects boasted terrific range and impact.

Low-end was tight and deep, so expect the film to use the LFE channel well. The soundtrack didn’t seem quite active enough to merit “A”-level consideration, but it brought out the sonic material in a highly satisfying manner.

As we shift to the set’s extras, we begin with an audio commentary from director Hany Abu-Assad. He presents a running, screen-specific look at some filmmaking details, but he mostly chats about story and characters.

By which I mean Abu-Assad mainly just narrates the movie. Were it not for his prominent accent, I might have thought I accidentally switched on the "Descriptive Audio" channel.

Sure, Abu-Assad adds those occasional glimpses of the production, and he also touches on some themes/interpretation. Unfortunately, those elements remain in the minority, so this usually becomes a dull recitation of events we can see for ourselves. Abu-Assad seems like an engaging guy, but he simply doesn't tell us much about his movie that we don't observe on screen.

Three featurettes follow, and the 12-minute, 42-second Love and Survival: Creating Chemistry comes first. It offers notes from Abu-Assad, author Charles Martin, producers Jenno Topping, David Ready and Peter Chernin, executive producer Fred Berger, and actors Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Dermot Mulroney and Beau Bridges.

“Chemistry” looks at the project’s path to the screen, Abu-Assad’s impact on the production, cast and performances, story and characters. A few decent notes emerge, but much of the material focuses on happy talk.

With Mountain Between Them: Shooting in Isolation, we get a 10-minute, 17-second piece with Abu-Assad, Ready, Martin, Elba, Chernin, Winslet, production designer Patrick Vermette, art director Cheryl Marion and location manager Robin Mounsey. “Isolation” examines locations and the challenges encountered in those places. This becomes a decent look at the issues related to the frigid remote areas used for the production.

Finally, The Wilds: Survival Stunts lasts five minutes, 47 seconds and gives us comments from Abu-Assad, Elba, Winslet, Berger, Marion, Bridges, stunt coordinator Dan Shea, and 2nd AD Philip Nee Nee. As expected, this one views some of the movie’s action beats. Like its predecessors, it feels a bit superficial but it adds some useful material.

Seven Deleted Scenes fill a total of 14 minutes, 15 seconds. Most of these tends to be redundant or unnecessary character beats, so I can’t claim any of them would’ve added to the movie.

We can view the scenes with or without commentary from Abu-Assad. He throws out a few thoughts about why he cut the sequences, but mostly he just talks about how “beautiful” they are.

A Gallery also appears. It includes 24 shots from the set. Though a small collection, we see some good images.

The disc opens with an ad for The Greatest Showman. Sneak Peek adds promos for Battle of the Sexes and Hidden Figures. We also find the trailer for Mountain.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Mountain. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

Despite the talents of its lead actors, The Mountain Between Us fails to become an especially involving drama. It suffers from too many leaden spots and clichés to prosper. The Blu-ray offers strong picture and audio along with a mediocre set of supplements. Parts of Mountain work well but the overall package feels lackluster