Base review – airborne daredevils dice with death in startling docudrama | Action and adventure films

There are some gasp-inducing shots in this docu-fiction about the hugely exciting and dangerous sport of base-jumping: sky-diving by leaping from a fixed promontory (building, antenna, span or earth) and taking the risk of being blown fatally back into the rock-face or concrete wall. The images are fascinating. The problem I have with the movie is that it grafts on to this great footage a slightly hammy fictional story, with real-life base-jumpers playing dramatic roles. (One of these, Alexander Polli, died before the movie was released.)

Two guys pursue their passion for base-jumping, and their friendship creates a fraught emotional triangle with a beautiful French woman who is in a relationship with one of them. The base-jumping scenes have such a swooping, gut-wrenching realness that the am-dram emotional scenes look contrived; they exist in a Blair Witch/Catfish uncanny valley of inauthenticity. Well, the jumps themselves are pretty staggering.