Stranded: I've Come From a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains

You'd think a plane crash in the Andes, cannibalism, and a daring escape against all odds would be a slam dunk as the subject for a documentary. And while this one is reasonably well done, it manages to fall flat in several ways.

There are some amazing present-day interviews with the survivors of the event, conducted during a pilgrimage to the actual spot of the wreck. But these are interspersed with faux-grainy footage of re-enactments that are muddled and confusing. Combined with a sparse and airy soundtrack that ends up trying too hard to be other-worldly, much of the documentary feels too dreamlike to give the full impact of the events. The artistic choices work to remove the viewer from the events on the screen, rather than make them more immediate.

The story is fascinating, but the full effect is missing, and there's probably a book out there that does a better job of telling it.