Lost on a Mountain in Maine (2024) review

Dir. Andrew Boodhoo Kightlinger

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

When I first heard the title Lost on a Mountain in Maine, I thought it was a song by Tex Ritter, or maybe Woody Guthrie, that I had yet to hear. Despite the titular northern state, it sounds like the perfect country western ditty, filled with rustic lyrics and a survivalist spirit. Growing up in the Midwest, I never heard the story of Donn Fendler, who, at the age of 12, became separated from his family on Maine’s Mount Katahdin in 1939.

His survivalist instincts, Boy Scout experience, and strong will to live kept him alive in the most adverse conditions. Fendler was eventually rescued after nine days on barely any food and water, and maybe more impressively, without pants. He chronicled his story in the 1978 book, Lost on a Mountain in Maine, which has since become an indispensable part of school curriculum in the Pine Tree State. He continued life speaking to elementary schools and other public events until his death in 2016 at age 90.

Fendler’s story is material built for the big screen, but Andrew Boodhoo Kightlinger’s film turns it into a disorganized muddle that wants to be both a survivalist tale and a search-and-rescue. Its Lifetime-level emotional manipulation takes the nuance out of an already gripping story; one that should’ve been told more like All is Lost than Breakthrough.

Donn Fendler (Luke David Blumm) is the son of a demanding father (Paul Sparks), who doesn’t hesitate in emphasizing the “tough” part of tough love to him and his brothers, Ryan (Griffin Wallace Henkel) and Tommy (Mason Cufari). “The world is not going to give him a break,” he tells his doting wife, Ruth (Caitlin FitzGerald). “Neither should I.”

Donn’s fractured relationship with his dad his further compounded by his periodic absences due to his job. When dad must cancel a two-week fishing trip because he has to work, Donn is furious. Just when you think dad is going to preach about the importance of putting food on the table, he instead initiates a mulligan. He offers to take the three boys on a hiking trip up Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, before his departure.

Despite this impromptu trip, Donn carries his malice up the mountain with him, so much so that a fast-moving storm doesn’t hinder his personal quest to continue climbing. Dad recognizes his son’s desire to “be a man,” so he allows it, in the company of some other neighborhood kids. But the encroaching fog, high winds, and worsening darkness soon result in Donn being separated from the group. For perspective, the mountain’s highest peak is 5,270 feet, and there a couple hundred-thousand acres of wilderness surrounding it. Donn slowly realizes that the great outdoors is even less forgiving than his old man.

I would’ve been completely content, even riveted, by a film intimately focused on Donn’s struggle to survive the conditions of Mount Katahdin. Ultimately, the trio of writers (Joseph B. Egan and Luke Paradise using Fendler’s book as source material) didn’t feel the same. Instead of making this a low-key movie that shows exactly how Donn managed to stay alive for nine straight days, juxtaposing his disappearance is the family and volunteer’s search party efforts. But that’s not all. For some bizarre reason, interjected into the dramatized story are recent interviews with individuals who were involved in Fendler’s real-life disappearance, including that of his twin brother.

This gives the impression that Kightlinger couldn’t decide whether he wanted to make a documentary or a narrative feature, so he makes both, underwhelmingly so. The search party scenes lack intensity because Sparks and FitzGerald are stone-faced, even as days pass and those involved in the quest to find Donn start to internalize the notion that they’re liable to find a body instead of a living boy. The two have no chemistry together, and are emotionally reticent in contrast to a movie with a score and structure engineered to make you feel something.

When Lost on a Mountain in Maine focuses on Donn, it’s at least serviceable and half-inspiring. Blumm is a capable performer who handles the physicality of the role better as time goes on. If only the script allowed us to spend more time with him instead of hamfisting documentary footage and cold encounters between his parents. What a strange film this is, where the music is attempting to craft emotion strong enough to reach the rafters while the litany of unmoving performances makes you want to check for a pulse.

Starring: Luke David Blumm, Paul Sparks, Caitlin FitzGerald, Griffin Wallace Henkel, Mason Cufari, Ethan Slater, Bates Wilder, and Jacob Heimer. Directed by: Andrew Boodhoo Kightlinger.