Not to be confused with the 2000 M Night Shyamalan movie starring Samuel L Jackson as an evil mastermind, this earnest documentary is about Mark Pollock, an Ulsterman living in Dublin who has been struck with a serious disability not once but twice in his life. First, in his 20s he went blind, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing his interest in extreme adventure challenges and completing a race to the south pole in 2009. Unfortunately, a year later, he fell out of a window and became paralysed from the waist down. The bulk of this film tracks Mark and his likable partner Simone George as they cope with his recovery, from Mark simply learning to use a wheelchair to acquiring robotic legs and pursuing a cure for paralysis. Basically, it’s your standard triumph-over-adversity stuff, empowering if you’re especially interested in the subject, but dull as a piece of film-making. No mention is made of the well-publicised fact that Mark successfully sued the friends who owned the house where he had his fall, but was careful only to claim for what the insurance could potentially cover so as not to ruin them personally. Covering that angle might have made for a much more interesting film, but probably not one as amenable to charity screenings.
