The Mountain Within Me review – feelgood climbing doc is hard to resist

The inspirational story of former professional rugby union player Ed Jackson , who suffered life-changing injuries but found a new spiritual strength, is explored in Polly Steele’s handsome but by-numbers documentary. This is a film that is precision-engineered to hit the commercial sweet spot between extreme-sports mountain-climbing adventure docs such as Free Solo , The Alpinist and Touching the Void and feelgood tales of overcoming adversity. And as such, it works.

It’s impossible not to be moved by Jackson’s journey, as documented via his social media activities, after an accident that left him paralysed from the shoulders down, through a remarkable recovery, to the conquest of mountains that would challenge even the fittest of able-bodied climbers.

• In UK and Irish cinemas