The Gorge makes the perfect date night movie [Apple TV+ review]

The Apple TV+ original film The Gorge neatly mixes romance and action, with a pair of highly trained agents falling in love while protecting the world from horrible monsters that lie hidden in the depths of the eponymous gorge.

It’s a fun popcorn movie, with stars Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver giving it their all. There’s plenty to enjoy for those who like action and for those who like romance. Put it on the calendar for your next date night.

That said, it benefits from the lower expectations for a straight-to-streaming film like this one. It’s fun, exciting, sweet … but not perfect.

The Gorge review: Why it’s the perfect date night movie

All too often, what people call a “date movie“ is a romantic comedy that half the couple loves while the other person feels slightly bored. But The Gorge is a real date movie: it’s about equal parts action and romance, so it has something for everyone to enjoy.

I go to plenty of action movies, so I’m well familiar with that type of film’s habit of gluing in a romantic subplot that gets hardly more than token attention. That’s not the case here – roughly 50% of the movie is the couple slowly falling in love under very unique circumstances.

Then the second half of the film is action-packed action with bullets flying everywhere. Surely it’s not a spoiler when I tell you that the couple ends up in the mysterious Gorge. It wouldn’t be much of a movie if that didn’t happen. They then must fight their way out through hordes of monsters.

A cute couple

Levi (played by Miles Teller) is an American agent who’s the sole guard in the Gorge’s West Tower Observation Post. Drasa (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) is a Lithuanian agent in the East Tower, on the far side of the canyon. There’s no one else anywhere near, and the two aren’t permitted any outside contact, nor can they talk to each other.

Out of sheer loneliness and boredom, they strike up a friendship via forbidden written messages read through powerful binoculars — they’re about half a mile apart. Over time, their relationship grows closer, until finally it’s time for them to meet in person. It goes wonderfully … and then horribly wrong.

The on-screen chemistry between the two actors is what makes The Gorge work. It also helps that their characters have been written with depth — they aren‘t simple action-hero cardboard cutouts. And don’t forget the unique circumstances. Where else are you going to see two lovers bond over which of them has shot someone at the farthest distance?

Sigourney Weaver plays the villain. She doesn’t get much screen time, as she’s the head of a shadowy organization, so the film needed a strong actor in the role. Weaver has the chops to make it work.

Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver

Miles Teller also starred in Whiplash, the remake of Footloose, and in the unfortunate 2015 version of The Fantastic Four.

British-American actress Anya Taylor-Joy has quite a list of credits in a variety of genres. She was a chess champion in The Queen’s Gambit and an action star in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. She’s also been in The Menu and much more and stars in Apple TV+’s upcoming adaptation of the crime thriller Lucky. Taylor-Joy won both a SAG and a Golden Globe award and was nominated for an Emmy.

Sigourney Weaver is a screen legend, with prominent roles dating back to the original Alien. She has three Oscar nominations under her belt.

An interesting premise

What’s hidden in the Gorge is kept deliberately secret. One of the characters is told “The Gorge is the door to Hell”. I won’t spoil the surprise because the mystery is a significant factor in the appeal of the movie.

In vague terms, though, the scenario that screenwriter Zach Dean came up with is plausible enough for an action movie. There’s no way it could happen in the real world, of course, but I also know scientists can’t clone dinosaurs — that doesn’t impact my enjoyment of the Jurassic World movies.

Part of the plausibility is top-quality CGI combined with good monster design.

Want to know what I’m talking about? Watch the movie. You’ll have a fun evening.

Why you might not like it

As much as I liked The Gorge, it’s certainly not perfect.

For an action movie, it has a lot of romance. For a romance, the film includes a heck of a lot of action. That’s great for couples, but if you don’t like one or the other genre, you’ll be bored for half the movie.

And that action feels quite a bit like Levi and Drasa dropped into a video game. There’s even a boss battle. I remember thinking in the middle of the movie “Have I played this level in one of the versions of Diablo?“

That’s only one of the reasons the film feels familiar. The other is that it follows a well-worn path. As hard as I’m trying to avoid spoilers, it’s kind of impossible because The Gorge is predictable. You know from the start that the couple is going to fall in love, then they’re going to fall into the Gorge, and then they’re going to live happily ever after. If you’re looking for a shocking, tragic twist, you’ll need to look somewhere else. But the movie follows that very familiar story arc because it’s what most audiences enjoy.

Some viewers complain of plot holes. I’ll admit, it’s somewhat improbable that the very existence of the Gorge has been kept secret for close to a century, considering what a huge threat it is. And two people on 24-hour-a-day watch duty is simply not enough to guard against a peril that could wipe out humanity.

But I urge you not to overthink the movie. Enjoy it for what it is.

The Gorge: Above average for a straight-to-streaming film

I genuinely liked this film. The action is exciting while the romance is sweet. I even came to care about the characters.

Just know that I set a lower bar on made-for-streaming films like this one. I didn’t shell out $20 to watch it… I paid Apple TV+ $9.99 to see everything on the streaming service this month, including new episodes of Severance. I’d be a bit harsher on The Gorge if it cost more.

★★★★☆

Have fun with the film, eat some popcorn, and don’t think about how the river running through the Gorge would spread the horrible effects over a huge area downstream.

Still on the bubble about watching? Maybe it’ll help to know that the film is very popular and was the biggest film premiere in Apple TV+ history.

Finding out the secret of The Gorge comes with a subscription to Apple TV+. The service is $9.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle.

And Apple’s streaming video service also includes a library of drama, comedies, musicals, children’s shows, nature documentaries, etc.