Film Review/ 14 PEAKS: NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

Nims and some other guy carrying all the heavy stuff.

Yet another in the growing list of nail-biting mountaineering documentaries, 14 PEAKS: Nothing is Impossible tells the allegedly true story of a narcissistic young man who fancies himself a savior for all mankind. Nimsdai Purja, called Nims in the movie, sets out to be a mountaineering legend by summiting the 14 highest peaks in the world faster than anyone thought possible. That particular feat had been accomplished before, but it took that climber 16 years to do it. Nims vows to do it in 7 months or die trying.

As to why he wants to do it, his primary reason is to show the world that anything is possible. So we are to conclude that because Nims can reach his goal, all of us watching this movie will be motivated to reach ours. Secondarily, he is Nepalese and is distraught that his people have never attained their much-deserved notoriety in the esoteric world of mountaineering. Rather they have toiled as nameless "Sherpas," guiding the white man up various mountains, most notably Mt. Everest. The white man gets all the glory, or so Nims believes. To that end, he introduces his team of Sherpas by name and then promptly resumes his place at center stage for the entire film. (Goodbye Sherpas, now get to work!)

Nims goes up the first mountain in seemingly no time, and then it's off to the next. And then he's summiting that one, and then he's off to the next. We see lots of close-ups of individual boots being inserted into deep snow, but nothing at all scary or even gasp-worthy. Every once in awhile the team parties when they meet some other climbers, except for when they meet climbers who are near-death and eventually all the way dead, since mountain-climbing is very, very dangerous, except not for our Nims.

There is plenty -- no, constant -- drone footage of mammoth, snow-covered mountains, so if that's your thing, this is your movie. Otherwise, it's a really long (100 minutes) date with Nims, who we repeatedly see hugging other climbers, kissing his dying mother and asking investors for money for his project, which he never gets but goes forward anyway because after all nothing is impossible. Spending somewhere in the millions on helicopters, mountain fees, a hefty Sherpa payroll, food, mules, multiple cameras, the aforementioned drones, innumerable oxygen tanks and tents, not to mention all the climbing equipment and gear, we start to wonder where he got all that dough. We never find out.

We do get to meet his pretty wife who tells us what a great guy Nims is and how he is so driven and that he has always had personal goals, and how he's so strong and almost superhuman, and how she accepts that he has to be away from home for months, if not years, at a time. That's okay with her because he's, well, he's Nims.

I hated Nims. For a real thrill, and minus an annoying frontman, watch K-2: Siren of the Himalayas.