Finding Michael

It started out as a sympathetic story, and of course, it is a family tragedy. As we watched, my husband and I were wowed by the spectacular houses the family lived in as much as the Everest climb. What do these people DO for a living? We wondered how they carved out the time to plan and make the trip. Do they work?

The real story came out well into the movie, when they shared that their 22-year-old son climbed Mt Everest wearing a Rolex watch. And the real story is the tone-deafness of the family and filmers. The movie is silent on the subject of the family affluence set against the poverty of the Sherpas. It's no sin to be rich but own the privilege! Talk about the cost of the expedition, the Sherpa's compensation, the risks they took -- make the story about the Sherpas as much as the other characters -- they are the real heroes here.

The "well, as long as we're up here" return of the Sherpa body was distasteful. Filming weeping children. Honestly.

Who are these that dis on this movie citing safety and privilege? Nobody slammed Conrad Anker when he went to get George Mallory off Everest in 1999, the same year Michael was lost. None of these Sherpas in this documentary looked like they were offended, abused or thought the search was unrealistic, unreasonably dangerous or futile.

It used to be accepted as fact that no one could perform a major rescue effort above 8000 meters, it's just not possible for a climber to carry another human. The vast majority of the climbers who have died above 8000 meters on ANY of the 14 mountains are still there. Kudos to the Sherpas!!

I really liked the side by sides of videos taken decades before along with the current shots of the same locations and material.

Bottom line: It's OK to go look for your brother who met his demise, last week or last century, poor or rich.

I wanted to like this.

I didn't realise the guy who is in the film was in Made in Chelsea. That should serve as a warning if you choose to watch it.

Ultimately this misses the mark which is shame as it should be about the loss of a life on Everest and emotional journey in trying to recover the body. Unfortunately the family lack any emotion and therefore no connection with the viewer. The is no detail as to how Michael lost his life which in later research is due to the family taking legal action against the company that took him there. Very little detail on the actual team making the recovery. The only emotional part is in poor taste with a Sherpa's family near the end.

The part which should have been a good news story just came across as a contrived act pulled together in haste to get some plot and emotion back into the film. It just made me angry and disappointed that I was still watching. You can see the discomfort on the face of Spencer at the situation which was one of the only times he shows some real emotion. Surely realising the same thing.

This really shouldn't have been made. If you want to watch an interesting film about recovering a lost climber. Watch Torn.

This doc film charts Spencer Matthews' quest to find the body of his brother who dies near the peak of Everest. There's a lot that's beautiful - particularly the footage of the mountain and the story of Michael who seems like a wonderful human. What lets it down is Spencer's lack of emotional depth, as he seems nearly throughout to see this as an exciting &wide-eyed adventure, not a deep, personal experience it ought to be. Moreover, watching Nims bounce across the mountain 'body-hunting' just feels in really bad taste, and disrespectful to all that die there. Left a sour taste, if I'm honest.

I have to agree with many of the other statements made here. I was really looking forward to this film and then I spent the whole film thinking, wow...the Matthew's family must have loads of money to have been able to afford to send Michael up Everest...and then, two decades later, have so much money, Spencer could easily travel to Nepal and pay other people to go trekking for his body. The search must have cost a fortune...

And then, in top of that, so much of the gravitas that could have been in the film was ridiculously edited out, making the blurred bodies a huge distraction of silliness. Whomever thought THAT was a good idea should be fired and never allowed to work in film again.

This film could have been so much more, but it ultimately just came across as a little vapid.