The Gorge – A Love Story That’s Not Just a Love Story (But Also a Bit of a Mess Which Still's Worth Watching)

Ah, Valentine’s Day. A time for overpriced chocolates, forced romance, and dodging all those smug couples on Instagram. But this year, Apple TV Plus decided to play Cupid in a way no one saw coming—by launching The Gorge, a film that is technically a love story but also a high-calibre, conspiracy-riddled, sniper-fueled, existential crisis of a film. Romantic, right?

 At first glance, you might think Apple buried The Gorge in a Valentine’s Day release schedule busier than an Italian motorway at rush hour, up against the likes of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and Paddington in Peru. Surely, they wanted it to fail. But the plot twist—it’s actually rather good. Not perfect, mind you. It stumbles, crumbles, and occasionally falls flat on its face, but it does so in a way that’s oddly charming. 

Directed by Scott Derrickson (who clearly decided to throw logic out the window and just go for it), the film follows two snipers—Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy)—who are tasked with watching over a mysterious gorge full of horrors. Naturally, they’re forbidden from communicating, which, in the grand tradition of every ‘forbidden’ romance ever, means they immediately start flirting via whiteboard messages and longing stares through sniper scopes. Now, there’s a lot to like here. The quiet moments—Levi scribbling poetry, Drasa playing piano—are some of the best in the film. These two aren’t just killing machines; they’re real people, with emotions and vulnerabilities, and that’s what makes it work. The problem? Every time the film starts to really dig into this beautifully bizarre relationship, it remembers it’s also a monster movie and shoves in a load of exposition and government conspiracy nonsense that no one actually cares about. Even the camera looks bored whenever it’s forced to deal with the backstory. But when it’s just Levi and Drasa, it sings. 

The chemistry between them is undeniable, even if it does raise a rather intriguing question—what if they weren’t conventionally attractive young people? What if it was two old chaps? Or two women? Or two people who weren’t destined to inevitably snog? Would the emotional core of the film still work, or does it rely too much on the whole ‘hot people find love even at the gates of hell's dynamic? 

Regardless, The Gorge is a fascinating little beast—part action thriller, part love story, part philosophical musing on human connection. It may not be the smoothest of films, but Derrickson directs with enough flair to keep things interesting, and Teller and Taylor-Joy commit to the madness without hesitation. So yes, it’s a love story. But it’s also a film about survival, trust, and monsters. And if that’s not the perfect metaphor for modern romance, I don’t know what is.