My Review of "The Climber aka L'ascension"

From the trailer I saw on Netflix L'ascension or The Climb seemed like a fun movie to watch. I needed something kind of mellow because I've been watching a lot of intense sci-fi movies. This movie was exactly what I needed.

This movie came out quietly back in 2017. I'm surprised people don't talk about this movie because it's got tons of heart and will be able to charm people into feeling better about themselves. To add to all this, it's based off a true story!

The movie starts with this Samy, played by Ahmed Sylla. He's a regular kid from a poor family. He's doing some radio interview and in the interview he tells the hosts that he's going to climb mount Everest.

They go into how he got the money to fund such a huge trip. He does live in their neighborhood and this neighborhood isn't the most affluent. Samy explains to them all of the rejections he got from all the banks and sponsors. There was however two sponsors willing to help pay for the trip. A savvy business manager and the radio station that the radio hosts are working at.

They then go into his motivations and Samy says it's for him, his family, his neighborhood and especially a girl named Nadia, played by Alice Belaidi. They then have a flashback of a date with him and Nadia. The two have known each other since middle school and he's been in love with her ever since. At the end of the date Samy makes a claim that he'd climb mount Everest for her.

After the interview the next scenes describe his farewell to his friends and family. That's when the movie really starts off. It's a fun adventure from beginning to end.

We get to see his whole neighborhood and family cheering him on while he ascends mount Everest. They also show us the struggles he had to deal with during his trip. He lied on his application that he had climbed mountains before because he had underestimated the climb. Unfortunately for him he realized his mistake all too late.

During his trip he encounters many different climbers. He even befriends one of the Sherpa who he named Johnny, played by Umesh Tamang, because of the shirts he kept wearing. Their friendship throughout the trip grows stronger. Samy would read to Johnny as Johnny would teach Samy to climb. It's a nice relationship that helped bring the charm to the movie.

This movie oozes charm and has a ton of heart. I loved how they would show how much of an influence Samy had on his neighborhood and his family. It shows that an everyday person can motivate a community. Some of it was hard to believe that someone with no mountain climbing experience can actually make such an achievement.

We all know how the movie will end off but it's nice to see the process to get to the ending. Even when the movie is predictable it's sometimes fun to just watch the journey to get there. Why else do we watch biographies of certain individuals? We already know what's happened but we want to know the details.

Overall, I really liked this movie. There was so much charm and love in this movie that I couldn't help but smile throughout the film. I have to warn you that it's all in French but the subtitles just disappear after a while. You don't even realize you're reading half the time. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I really liked this movie and I'll be recommending this movie to a lot of my friends.