Free Solo

Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Directors: Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Quick Impressions:
I can’t remember the last time I saw a documentary that so inspired me to create a work of fiction. Well, okay, everything I watch, read, and experience feeds into the fiction I write. But Free Solo absolutely demands a sequel directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Too bad that Hitchcock isn’t available. Of course, I’m guessing that soon Alex Honnold won’t be available either. Let’s hope it’s because he’s retired, (though those hopes are likely to be dashed). (That sentence was originally much cleverer but seemed in poor taste.)

Attending my daughter’s science fair delayed our usual date night, so instead we went out Friday evening, which happened to be my husband’s birthday. For that reason, I let him pick the movie. He decided against Glass because neither of us has seen Split yet. I remember hearing Split was good, but until recently I had no idea it was related to Unbreakable, which I haven’t watched for almost twenty years.  So we’ll be doing some catching up at home before viewing M. Night Shyamalan’s latest mindbender.

Based on my husband’s enthusiastic reaction to the trailer, I assumed we would end up watching On the Basis of Sex, but he surprised me by choosing Free Solo.

“I’m starting to think you just picked the movie I wanted to see,” I said in the car.

“No,” he assured me, seeming slightly annoyed. “I picked Free Solo because I’m in the mood for a documentary.” (But after all this time together, he’s started to think like me. If the biopic of a figure as beloved and in-the-news as Ruth Bader Ginsburg is so great, then why is it generating absolutely no Oscar buzz?)

I’m glad we got the chance to watch Free Solo in the theater. I think it would lose something on the small screen, though the story would be captivating no matter what.

The Good:
Here is the crazy thing about Free Solo. It’s the story of a young man, Alex Honnold, whose driving passion is free solo climbing. It’s his hobby, his career, his vocation, and (until very recently at least) his one true love.

Until we actually watched the movie, I didn’t understand what “free solo” meant. I knew that this documentary was about some kind of daring, lone wolf climber undertaking a personal journey of discovery as he scaled a daunting peak. I thought the title was probably part of an inspirational quote or maybe the name of a place.

But, actually, free solo is a style of climbing which a person undertakes alone (aka solo) using…nothing. No equipment, no ropes. Nothing. (Get it?  He’s free.)  So basically this guy Alex Honnold has made a name for himself by going alone to famous rock formations and scrambling up them using nothing but his own hands and feet, like some kind of super jacked mountain goat.

And this film focuses on his plan to attempt a free solo climb up El Capitan, a three-thousand foot granite rock formation in Yosemite National Park. If you aren’t familiar El Capitan, I can tell you it’s extremely tall and kind of smooth and shaped like…I don’t know…nothing? (It almost looks like a really giant petrified steak or like Mt. Rushmore without the faces and the contours.) If I were going to choose an edifice to climb with my bare hands, I would pick something craggier (and shorter!) But the premise of the documentary is that Alex Honnold is going to scale this 3000 foot, (alarmingly smooth) monolith using nothing but his own hands and feet. And if at any point one of his hands or feet doesn’t go exactly where he plans, then he will instantly fall to his (likely) death.

And the crazy thing (that I’ve been promising to stress) is that Alex’s plan to free solo El Capitan is not even the most interesting aspect of the movie.

The thing is, Alex has this “new” (at the time) girlfriend, and I never could make up my mind about her. Throughout the entire movie, my sympathies kept shifting. Does this girl really love Alex? Is she just using him? Is she trying to murder him? Is she deliberately injuring him out of some disturbed need for attention or as part of some sinister scheme? Is she deliberately injuring him to try to prevent him from going through with his dangerous plan because she loves him? One second, I thought she was the best thing for him, the next I was sure she would be the death of him.

Her name is Cassandra “Sanni” McCandless. When I first heard that, I whispered to my husband, “Is she related to the Into the Wild kid? Wasn’t his name Christopher McCandless?” It was, but if she’s somehow related to him, she’s not spreading it around on the internet.

The thing is, to me their relationship only made sense if she was somehow mourning Christopher McCandless.  I mean, she looks like a young Christine Taylor (which I guess means she also looks a little like a young Maurine McCormick, but honestly, she’s a dead ringer for Christine Taylor).  She’s a practical, personable, intelligent, educated, capable woman interested in a stable, long term relationship.  And yet she wants to date someone whose stated intention is to make perilous climbs until he inevitably dies in the process.  Alex doesn’t have a death wish.  He’s just not in denial.  Free solo climbers almost always end their careers by falling to their deaths.  He keeps saying this and saying this, and yet she keeps suggesting things like, “Let’s settle down and buy a small but adequate refrigerator.”  (That’s not actually a quote from her.)

Now, I’ll be careful what I say because I don’t want to spoil the movie. Also, these are two real people who have lived extraordinary lives (three real people if you count Christopher McCandless). (Five if you count Christine Taylor and Maurine McCormick.)  I am certainly not out to belittle or defame Alex or Sanni or to try to diminish their accomplishments. But I can’t help my reactions to what I see on the screen. From my point of view, there’s some kind of nascent Hitchcockian suspense thriller lurking in this material. (And my husband had basically the same reactions.)  Maybe the filmmakers want us to have thoughts like this.

It’s not surprising that somebody made a movie about Alex Honnold. Not only is he an amazing athlete, but he’s also such a character. His interaction style (including his delightfully eccentric narration) certainly suggests that he’s on the autism spectrum. I’m not a doctor, but the person who gives him the functional MRI is, and those results make me think autism (or even, perhaps, some kind of non-malevolent sociopathy) (which is not a DSM-5 diagnosis, showing that I am, indeed, not a medical professional).

Honnold is extremely gifted and also philanthropic, so please don’t think I’m trying to insult him in any way. I’m not terribly neuro-typical myself. In fact, watching him made me reflect on some of my own idiosyncrasies.

(In some ways, I’m a lot like Alex, but I wish I had even a modicum of his athletic ability. Coordination is not my strong suit. In fact, to this day, I still can’t sweep a floor properly using a broom and dustpan. Whatever is supposed to happen just doesn’t for me. If I spill something on the kitchen floor, I always drop to the ground and start picking it up with my hands. My mother usually says, “Get the broom,” and then I wait until she’s not looking and continue picking it up with my hands.)

I wish I had Alex Honnold’s level of athleticism and lack of fear (my amygdala is the exact opposite of his. His is Unbreakable, and mine is Mr. Glass. That’s not a good analogy in any way. I just wish that my amygdala were Samuel L. Jackson.)

There’s so much more I want to say, but I worry that I’ve spoiled too much already.

Along with the arresting premise and compelling characters, Marco Beltrami’s majestic score sounds great, and, as you might expect, the cinematography is also superb. Some cameras do an outstanding job of capturing the beauty of Yosemite and the daunting height of El Capitan while others focus on the intriguing (and growing) unease of the camera men.

Best Action Sequence:
Guess what? This will sound crazy, but I think the best action sequence is when Alex attempts a free solo climb of El Capitan. (Have I astonished you?)

Best Scene:
The free solo climb is the best scene in the movie, too. I love the reactions of some of the camera men, one in particular. He can’t watch. He keeps looking away. Wouldn’t you feel a bit responsible (or at least guilty) if you were asking an athlete to do a never before completed free solo climb and halfway through he fell to his death?

Is that what happens to Alex? I’m not going to tell. You’ll have to watch the movie.

Best Scene Visually:
Okay, that’s also the free solo climb of El Capitan. Whoever came up with this idea for a documentary is a genius because whether things work out or not, it’s a beautiful, gripping, fascinating watch.

(I remember as a young child being in Disneyland and watching the odd climber scale the Matterhorn. Even that was entertaining, but this is next level. Several levels up, actually.)

There’s also a scene of another climber falling that is beyond riveting.

Best Sequence Not About Climbing:
I love all the material included about Alex’s parents and childhood. What makes it especially nice is how late in the story we get it, so it seems to confirm all of the theories we’ve already come up with ourselves while also answering some questions we never even knew we had.

Best Aspect of the Movie:
You’ll just have to trust me that the psychology and human drama are at least as interesting (if not more interesting) than the climb itself. (The way Alex describes having his girlfriend around, the way he describes hugging–his take on just about everything is so priceless, simultaneously off-putting and endearing. My favorite line in the movie comes really early when Alex points out that though he could die suddenly while climbing, he could also die suddenly for any reason at any time. That’s how life works.  Fair point.

In a film about mountain climbing, you wouldn’t think we’d get a charming scene about refrigerator shopping in Las Vegas, but this movie is full of hidden gems. I also appreciated the way we got to meet so many members of the film crew.

The Negatives:
While I was watching, I kept thinking (with increasing urgency), “You don’t have to do this! Why do you have to do this? Don’t do this! Please, just think about what you’re giving up! Please don’t do this!”

But then when it seemed that Alex might not do it, after all, I suddenly thought in outraged disappointment, “What? Are you kidding? You’re not going to do it?  Really?????!!!  Come on, you have to do it!”

This actually is a point in the movie’s favor, but I think it does say something negative about me.