Lost on a Mountain in Maine (2024) Review: Despite Some Fine Performances, This Otherwise Inspiring True Story of a Boy’s Survival Lacks the Necessary Grit

On paper, the true story of Lost on a Mountain in Maine about a 12-year-old Donn Fendler who found himself lost on the foggy Mount Katahdin in Maine and miraculously survived the ordeal for nine days after wandering for 80 miles before he was finally rescued, sounds gripping enough for a survival drama. The story itself was then retold in the form of a non-fiction book from Donn Fendler himself alongside Joseph B. Egan and now, the big-screen adaptation.

The latter got me more interested since it was co-produced by Sylvester Stallone under his banner of Balboa Productions, whose company’s biggest hit so far came from Creed III. The movie begins promisingly with the real-life interview footage of Junior York, one of the searchers behind the search party, speaking about his experience at the time.

Set during the Great Depression era of 1939, Lost on a Mountain in Maine establishes its characters with the introduction of the Fendler family. Donn (Luke David Blumm) and his brother Ryan (Griffin Wallace Henkel) are happy to see their father Donald (Paul Sparks) finally returning home after a business trip. Donn is particularly looking forward to a fishing trip that his father has promised him, only to end up with a mountain hike up Katahdin along with Ryan. This also allows Donald to toughen his boys up and act like men but the hike is cut short after he discovers the storm is coming. And yet, Donn insists on continuing the journey.

“You want us to be men? Then let us be men”.

Donald is reluctant at first but eventually gives in to allow Donn to continue his hike alongside Ryan and their guide. They did manage to make it to the top, albeit going through the thick fog. And then, the thunderstorm happens and they need to make it back to the ground in a hurry. It wasn’t long before Donn found himself separated from his brother and the guide and unable to locate them anywhere in sight.

So far, so good except for the remainder of the movie trudges through a series of missed opportunities in what could have been a harrowing survival drama. Maybe because the movie is rated PG, resulting in Andrew Kightlinger playing too safe with a surface-level depiction of the boy’s survival. That’s a pity because Luke David Blumm does a decent job playing a strong-willed boy who refuses to give up even when he’s all alone trying to stay alive. He has no choice but to improvise his survival skills, namely the part when he tries to catch a fish.

Cinematographer Idan Menin deserves equal mention for filming the movie on location in Hudson Valley, New York, which serves as a stand-in for Maine’s Mount Katahdin. And yet, despite the initially promising setup detailing the Fendler’s family dynamics and the beginning of the mountain hike, the survival story itself is disappointingly bland. I was rooting for Kightlinger to show how an inexperienced pre-teen like Donn would survive in such a harsh and treacherous condition for nine days.

Too bad the director chose to depict his scenes as perfunctory as he gets, which in turn, wasted the effort that Blumm pours his heart into his physically demanding performance. A more astute director would have found ways how to make use of the on-location shoot in the mountain and turn it into a thrilling, muscular survival drama. Another thing that annoys me is Kightlinger’s penchant for disrupting the survival story with more interview footage from other people recounting the events, which will benefit better if they are featured during the end credits instead.

The movie also equally falters in the scenes revolving around Donn’s parents, specifically Donald trying hard to look for Donn with the help of a search party and the local authorities. Paul Sparks looks the part and also delivers a solid supporting turn as the steadfast and guilt-ridden father but like Blumm’s Donn Fendler, his performance is largely undermined by Kightlinger’s lacklustre direction. The scenes on the ground from Donald’s ongoing search to his wife Ruth (Caitlin FitzGerald) spending time worrying and hoping for his son to make it out alive are all portrayed in the utmost superficial manner. And most of all, lacking the much-needed emotional weight to show Donn’s parents’ level of despair knowing their son remains lost for days.

If only Lost on a Mountain in Maine was given a boost with added grit to such a story, it would have been an engaging cinematic experience.