TELLURIDE: A painter may excel in oils, but struggle in watercolors. A guitar player may thrive with rock music, but stumble in the country realm. For a documentary filmmaker, one of the most difficult creative transitions is transitioning into fictional waters. Even the most visionary documentarians can find themselves at odds with such narratives, and for every director who succeeds, there are often 10 more whose aspirations come up short. Jennifer Peedom has spent almost two decades chronicling the exploits of man versus the elements in non-fiction films. She spent weeks of her life forging relationships with the Sherpa community in Nepal on expeditions to Mount Everest and its environs for multiple projects. In many respects, she is uniquely qualified to tell the tale of how Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first two men to reach the summit of the tallest mountain on the planet. A story full of inherent drama depicted in her new film, “Tenzing.” But knowledge of the ins and outs of mountain climbing and a stunning score from composer Rebekka Karijord can only take you so far.

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A world premiere at the 2026 Telluride Film Festival, “Tenzing” spans three decades in the life of a young goat herder (initially Samdrup Dorje Lama) who, despite knowing little English, eventually becomes a trusted guide for expeditions tackling Mount Everest. He gets his big break by winning over the Himalayan Club secretary Jill Henderson (Caitríona Balfe, always stellar), who becomes his quiet champion. Tenzing wasn’t born Sherpa, however, and resentment is palpable from the other paid climbers over his gradual success. But when Colonel John Hunt (Willem Dafoe, elevating the material) works with Henderson to fill out the 1953 team attempting to reach Everest’s summit, she convinces him to make the charismatic guide an official member of the expedition.

Ten minutes reading a Wikipedia page can tell you the exploits of Tenzing (portrayed by Genden Phuntsok at this point in 1953), Hunt, New Zealand expedition member Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston, always good), and the rest of their primarily British party. If Peedom and screenwriter Luke Davies pull any narrative tension off, it’s in depicting the inherent danger they faced at the absolute peak of their climb. If that moment was in 3D or on IMAX? You might be clutching your armrests. Where Peedom and her collaborators fail is with the first hour, which is simply a slog. Davies’ screenplay plays with the timeline, showing us flashbacks to Tenzing’s attempts to win over Henderson (there is a cutesy moment with a local English teacher) and his love affair with his eventual wife Dawa (Thinley Lhamo). There is also an inherent awkwardness in that Tenzin Dalha, who portrays Tenzing in his late teens/twenties, has much more on-screen charisma than Phuntsok. The former is a fine actor, but Dalha is one of the few bright points before the film focuses on the epic climb itself. And, yes, you often wish the movie had more of him.

The film, unfortunately, also falls into the formula of most biopics, or true-life stories. Will they or won’t they climb that mountain? I dunno, what do you think? Even if you’re unaware of historical events, the film’s tone never hints that anything truly tragic could occur. It all foretells a guaranteed happy ending. So, the journey better be massively epic, and we’ll give the overall production credit for that. They certainly try.

Peedom gets a massive assist from cinematographer Stefan Duscio, who crafts generally immaculate vistas in parts of Nepal and New Zealand, which stood in for much of Everest. So much so that you may wonder: Is this a matte painting? Is this real? Are they in a digital projection? How could they pull this off? That it isn’t easy to determine from the movie itself is probably the film’s greatest achievement (we’ll assume the credits give something away). And Karijord’s aforementioned score pulls at the heartstrings when the story can’t necessarily generate it on its own, but her work is still gorgeous.

To be fair, you’re never not rooting for Tenzing. You want him to make history. You want him to represent his country and not let the imperialist British climbers claim history and the Sherpa’s beloved Sacred Mountain as their own. But the movie only wants to dip its toe into that storyline and what those politics entail. Instead, it shifts focus to whether Tenzing will eventually be accepted by the one member of the Sherpa crew who continues to distrust him because he’s not “native” Sherpa. A narrative thread that may be historically accurate in some respect, but feels a bit too screenwriting 101 in this context.

But if you can make it through the first hour, Duscio’s cinematic compositions and that score might find you succumbing to “Tenzing’s” predictable charms. You might fall for a portrait of history that deserves a spotlight. That last 45 minutes is a fine adventure, and if you can see it on a big screen, it might all be worth it. Oh, wait. It’s only in theaters for a week. Any chance of seeing it on a genuinely large screen is unlikely. And we’re not sure how to react to that miscalculation except for “unfortunate.” [C+/C]

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“Tenzing” opens in select theaters on October 9 and on Apple TV on October 16

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Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry’s most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he’s the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.