Lost on a Mountain in Maine (2024)

Lost-on-a-Mountain-in-Maine-(2024)
Lost on a Mountain in Maine (2024)

“Lost on a Mountain in Maine” has a clearly descriptive title with even less imaginative elements than “Death of a Salesman” or “The Assassination of Trotsky” meaningful only as antics You probably do not expect too many surprises here. On the other hand, the audience is not in suspense since it is ‘fairly’ assured that Donn Fender played by Luke David Blumm will be right. By the same token, the spoiling beans are ectoplasmically spilled during the opening minutes of this family-friendly true-life drama and rather un-fynical director Andrew Boodhoo Kightlinger and scripter Luke Paradise promise the audience that the film’s protagonist will definitely come out victorious at the end of the story.

Or maybe that’s not so bad: Assume therefore for the sake of an argument that you do watch “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” with children of impressionable age, for whom identification with Donn as he tries to last alone in the bone-chilling cold of Northern Maine for nine days without food or water would drive them terrified, which is fair since they know how it ends already. Unless, of course, they get immersed in the film beyond recognition.

Concerning the adult audience, they can be quite absorbed during the rare periods of average suspense, and wowed by the spectacular cinematography of Idan Menin as it elevates the worth of the movie significantly. It also helps a great deal that the main roles are well-chosen, and it helps even more that the young Blumm is particularly talented in creating empathy towards his character.

That is no small accomplishment for a character who appears rather sulky and somewhat borderline bratty during his early appearances. It is the year 1939 in Newport Maine and his father Donald Fendler played by Paul Sparks, does not see any reason whatsoever to be gentle with his son or any of his other children, as the Great Depression is still going on. “It’s going to hell,” he tells his wife Ruth played by Caitlin FitzGerald who seems to understand him. He even says emphatically “Nobody’s going to cut him a break. I’m certainly not.”

So it’s safe to say that Donn is not the biggest fan of his father’s parenting style which he describes as tough of love. And, when Donald, who for the most part is away for his job, informs the family that he will not be going on a two-week fishing trip because he must work, Donn becomes infuriated. What is worse is that Donald is worried about work during the Great Depression and feels compelled to do so.

It would not be inappropriate to assume that Donald has very strong feelings about scoring points with his kids (if failing to do so is the measure of scoring. But this time, he feels bad and tries to make amends by offering to take his son Donn and two other brothers to Mount Katahdin and take some photographs of the highest peak of trees in Maine before he leaves.

Donn’s feelings are so panicked that when a storm approaches them with Donn, his siblings, his father, and a family friend going uphill, he chooses to ignore their advice and threatening weather and simply pushes forward. He gets lost in the crowd rather fast though and is left to fend for himself in no man’s land “100,000 acres of wilderness”, which in many ways is more merciless than his own father.

While other members of his family and volunteer search parties go about their search hoping to find him safe, the boy suffers abuses to mind and matter so bad, that it would make a green beret reluctant to continue. (It is easy to assume that Sylvester Stallone decided to act as one of the co-producers for this movie, because of its similarity to Rambo’s countless adventures in the wilderness).

In this respect, the film is better punctured with new interviews with some of the characters of this unfriendly story, including Donn’s twin brother who says that after nine days “we were looking for a body”, which caused him some embarrassment. Finally, picture manipulations showed some unusual results as to how that ‘misadventure’ came to an end and how relations within the family were restored.

Yet, one of the poignant aspects of “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” is the fact that it begs an uncomfortable question would Donn have been able to survive in the wilderness if no one had been as tough as his father? Right at the start, Donald gives a warning to his son, stating “Sometimes there is no option that you have, finish your fight.” Is it possible that Donn took his dad’s words more seriously than either of them imagined?

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