Kiss me. No, not the Sixpence None the Richer song. Keep it simple, stupid. Netflix takes two great actors, a beautiful landscape, and a good director. That’s all Apex needs during its 90 minute runtime. So, yeah, kiss me everytime. Beneath the milky twilight. But again, not the All That song. I’m confusing you, sorry.
After a life altering attempted climb up Troll Mountain in Norway, newly widowed Sasha (Charlize Theron) is fully in her move on and don’t dwell mentality. She goes to the Australian Wilderness, happy to do some river rafting to forget about things. There’s a creepy hunter/hiker (Matt Whelan) that sets Sasha on edge, not helped by her backpack going missing. She’s helped upstream by Ben (Taron Edgerton), the nice guy she meet in the general store before heading out. He gives her a meal which she digs…that is, until she notices her bracelet on Ben’s hand.
Director Balthasar Kormakur has been making these survival thrillers for a decade now. So, the audience is in secure hands. By secure, I mean he unsettles us early and often, and never lets go. The opening mountain climb goes right for the claustrophobia and heights fears, as well as giving Sasha one of those classic philosophical problems that sets her character on her course. Before the actual plot gets in motion, Sasha gets oogled by just burly, ominous men, doing the classic “I’m a nice guy, what’s up with you love?” thing to a woman by herself, where actually, Ben comes to her defense. Kormakur uses that tidbit when a supply less Sasha runs into him, letting her guard down so they can chat. But each little statement Ben makes shows he’s not exactly on the up & up with her either: he’s not interested in sex though…his mission is, well, a more dangerous game. From there, the survival thriller director uses the Australian National Parks in all their grandeur and danger, depending on where the cat and mouse story needs to go. We get high highs of beautiful cliffside respites, the chaotic rapids leading to underwater rock bumps and waterfall drops. As well as some cave sequences that will see your teeth start to clench as you know you’re going somewhere you’re not supposed to.
As Balthasar’s guide on this journey, he chose to cast the most versatile actress on the planet. No actress has more range than Charlize Theron, and dare I say, perhaps no actor period. The last 10 years or so she’s devoted time to these Tom Cruise like feats of strength, showing off how badass she is. Apex works because Charlize’s Sasha isn’t terrified of Ben, she’s more scared of her own shortcomings, and if she will rise to the challenge to meet them. At no point do you question how she’s this equipped to handle being hunted, it’s just innate in Sasha cause it’s innate in Charlize Theron. Because of how I described the beginning, you know we’re gonna be doing some climbing, Charlize makes the Free Solo dude look like one of those poser gym bros hitting on you, the way she tackles this giant obstacle. Against her is Taron Edgerton. Usually playing the normal aw shucks guy, he’s having a ball being a psycho here. He’s doing Australian White Heat basically, a little too attached to mommy and seeing her in this awesome woman in front of him. He loves her, yet he’s bound by ritual to do this, demented but just interesting enough, perfect combo.
So for the female hikers out there, always travel in pairs yeah? There’s too many weirdos the further out you get, and while you could probably go it alone, we can’t all be Charlize Theron. Charlize, do whatever you want though. And keep genre hopping: I love all the weird movie choices you make.