Fine Lines

A refreshing look into the intimate and thought provoking topics we don't often see extreme athletes get into- certainly not in such depth and honesty; a contemplative and philosophical look into the reasons behind why some people put their lives at risk when there is not much to gain from the act. Finally, we get to see incredible women alongside the men in this sport too, my favourite "climbing" film to date - though it's really so much more than climbing.

The movie itself is a compilation of interviews of well known rock climbers, mountaineers, ice climbers and paraclimbers. A big chunk of the footage is reused from previous reel rock scenes and the movie tries to assign what risk is in climbing and in the life of the athletes. It falls short on focusing on... something, the storyline follows too many perspectives and you loose focus on the movie itself. Of course the trailer and the poster is misleading, making you think of great movies such as "king lines" with Chris Sharma.... but "fine lines"is anything but that. The soundtrack is too "dreamy", there is very little action, and the action showed is presented in short unintelligible sequences...followed by some static scenes, losing its flow of action. All in all it is not a typical climbing movie, it is more of a mash up that tries to give climbing this aura of a demigod activity for "very whole" people. I, personally think that this movie is for a certain type of climber or for some people that start climbing and they are charmed by the "holiness" of it.

I had no idea about this until today and gave it a watch. I've had the privilege to spend some time in the mountains now and even some with the folks in this film. I've watched friends take big ones in front of me and had some close calls in there too. I give it a 10 on the caveat that, when the right person at the right time maybe for the right reasons watches this it will land like nothing else out there.

Nothing I've seen gets as close to drawing out the real nuances available in endeavors such as these, through the eyes of the people who have walked the mile. I don't think it's a question of which is better, Free Solo, Dawn Wall, or this.

Each are equally remarkable in their own right, each, for the first time, took the whole world along along with them. Each makes the other better and adds to the narrative.

Tommy nails one late in a film that in whole is a sum of quotable content when he says, "we're no longer focused on what we're doing, we're focused on the story we're going to tell as we're doing it. We have the privilege to inspire in a way that we never could in the past. But, I feel like there's a loss...walk that balance delicately."

It's like we got Tommy on The Dawn Wall and we get a meta Dawn Wall Tommy here * 20. A better question might be, what's next and who is next?

Experiencing life as it is meant. Living on the edge and not settling for complacency. Despite all challenges that may come across and take you off your feet, you have THE POWER OF CHOICE to do something beautiful with your life. Absolutely loved this.

This film reaches a broad audience and has touched my soul in ways that I didn't think a movie of this genre would. The themes it's runs through are not only deep but anyone can relate no matter what aspects of their lives they draw parallels to. It was nice to finally see the human side of such extreme athletes. I would highly recommend it to anyone.