Californian friends Kelly and Sophie have gone to Italy where they hope to undertake a challenging climb in the Dolomites. The day before they plan to set off another for Americans arrive; four men who have known each other since childhood. The girls join them for a drink around the campfire. The girls aren't too impressed when the men say they are planning to tale a tourist trail to the top. Sometime after Kelly returns to their cabin, Josh, the apparent leader of the friends tries it on with Sophie... when she rebuffs him he attempts to rape her. Events lead to her being seriously injured; Josh murders her rather than let her tell what happened. He ropes in his friends to incriminate them... only then do the realise that not only did Kelly witness the murder; she filmed it. The chase her but she gets away and sets off up the cliff. They can't catch her on the rock face but they can get above her. Naturally things are going to get unpleasant for all involved as she is trapped on a narrow ledge several feet below them.
I thought this film was okay. The central plot is pretty simple but effective in that quickly sets things up so we can get to the action. It is hinted at very early on that Josh has done something dubious in the past so his behaviour towards Sophie isn't a real surprise. As things progress and we learn more about him it becomes clear that he is psychotic... one wonders why his friends didn't abandon him years before. I was a little disappointed that the actual climb was over so quickly; although to be fair it is called 'The Ledge' not 'The Climb'. When deaths occur they are fairly brutal and most didn't play out in the manner I'd expected. I could have done without the flashback to Kelly and her climbing mentor; they were a bit cheesy and took us out of the real action. The cast were decent enough for a low budget film. The effects are somewhat mixed; the initial part of the climb was solid enough but once on the ledge I never thought Kelly was really hundreds of feet up the side of a mountain. The blurb described it as 'Cliffhanger' meets 'Revenge'; that might get a few more people to watch but they'll quickly start thinking they'd have been better off watching one of those films as they are both far superior. Overall I'd certainly not call this a must see but if you like the genre and have ninety minutes to kill it passes the time well enough.
