hyped garbage

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Cash-strapped husband and wife Will and Dawn stumble upon a pair of mysterious hitchhikers and end up picking up another passenger along the way (a man suffering from extreme hypothermia). The man with hypothermia dies , Will, Dawn and the hitchhikers discover that the man is carrying co-ordinates which allegedly relate to some missing gold stolen from various banks. The 4 of them decide to team up and try to find the gold, but will they all be able to survive the extremely cold temperatures?As a survival thriller, Numb is perfectly functional; characters go from A to B, they argue, then they try to work together, one person assumes command and acts as the voice of reason only for everyone to go against that person's advice/decision and to top it all off we have our token lunatic living alone out in the middle of the sticks (well there has to be one in every film doesn't there). Although these may seem like criticisms (and to a certain extent they are) these things do drive the film forward and at the very least ensure that the film is never boring. However...It also means that Numb is far from being a brilliant film and I think what lets it down slightly is the script. The whole thing is predictable from start to finish and the script also offers no room for development (the mysterious hitchhikers remain mysterious and we learn next to nothing about them - the only thing I got was that one or possibly both of them were in prison). This also extends to the wife and husband who were equally uninteresting. The predictable narrative I could handle if the film was more intense, dramatic or exciting, but aside from the moment where the wife nearly falls off the cliff it just wasn't really like this. The sad thing is that there were definitely ways that this could have been more exciting; what about the GPS failing due to bad weather and have them abandon the search for the gold and try to find their way back to the car? Or have the loner in the remote cabin trying to pick them off one by one while they're trying to find the gold or perhaps a combination of the two? Like I say by playing the whole thing out safe and with by-the-numbers precision it just meant that the script was a bit lacking in certain areas - although I did like the scene where they put forest leaves and branches under their shoes to act as snow shoes.Having said that the cast all do a decent enough job and sell the film as best as they can; although them all being unlikeable and rather selfish is a little bit off-putting truth be told. The bleak and remote setting is captured fairly well and the cinematography is also good. Numb's script is the make or break aspect here and acts as both a blessing and a curse; the film is short and sweet with 85 minutes passing by fairly painlessly and to its credit the film is never boring. However, it's the lack of spark within the narrative that holds it back and whilst it isn't boring it's hardly an edge-of-your seat thrill ride either. It gets the job done, but it perhaps isn't as good as it could have been.

watched this movie start to finish hoping it would get better it had great film work and actors were OK but story was completely predictable it was also padded out so much i nearly fell asleep it was not believable that they would be so stupid to enter these conditions unprepared for the cold just they were greedy to be frank i thought the film was pointless and a waste of my valuable time i do not know how it achieved a positive rating it annoyed me to say the least the ending was terrible and it was like reading about some boring story where people have to be rescued by experts because they went out into dangerous conditions against professional advice which happens quite a lot in real life it was a poor and pointless film worse than a poor TV movie do not watch or you will be annoyed at the terrible and sad ending

Really enjoyed this movie on so many levels: I felt the four lead actors were well cast and gave realistic and nuanced performances. The screenplay painted four believable characters struggling within themselves and the elements they had to confront. The BC wilderness setting was captured well by the cinematographer and supported by a fantastic musical score. Jason Goode's direction had wonderful pacing and the movie's story line hooked you into the growing dilemmas each character was experiencing. Finally, the excellent special effects (especially the makeup) made the audience feel like you were there struggling with them. Go see this movie. You'll enjoy the entire experience.

An entertaining, engaging trek into the cold of a Canadian winter - and the human heart. The life- and-death struggles of survival in the British Columbia mountains lie only a couple hours trek from a well-travelled highway, just as the possibility of moral compromise and personal betray lie only a handful of bad decisions away from day-to-day middle-class life.Aleks Paunovic is a standout in this strong cast: his threatening physical presence and shady back- story stand in queasy juxtaposition to an easy smile and ready spiritual bromides, with the audience (and his fellow travellers) never certain which will carry the day. A remarkable and ambitious first film from Canadian director Jason Goode.