Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288.2 feet, and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River.

The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather, and the weather, this day, is soft and warm and sunny at its base. But like all mountains, it has a gorgeous face and a heart full of traps.

Co-director Malgorzata Szumowska (“Never Gonna Snow Again”) along with a screenplay by Joshua Rollins and a masterpiece of camera art by Michał Englert, gives a simple story about survival.

It is about a man swallowed by grief, on a journey to his end, and an incredible woman who carries two backpacks, one full of lifesaving equipment, another in her heart full of pain and memories.

This is where the man and woman, both with broken hearts, met one cold day in October and changed the story of their lives.

It is about these two humans, but the mountain is so large, so beautiful and dangerous, that it threatens, in every frame, to steal the movie away from these two deeply pained humans.

But before this day ends, this towering mass of snow will become a ferocious white bull with horns of ice, and an unforgiving face will share this white plaza del toros with two souls. There will be no cheering crowds nor blazing sun.

Pam Bales, a strong woman suffering from a personal tragedy, eases her pain with frequent walks up Mount Washington. She loves this mountain, but never trusts it. She knows over 150 trusting souls died up here.

Soon after moving up past the safety of the tree line, she spots footprints, made by sneakers, in the snow, pointing up. She knows well that a human wearing simple sneakers in the snow is in trouble.

When she reaches the top, she finds a man sitting in the snow, scantily clothed, minutes from hypothermia and death. Unable for him to give his name, she calls him “John.”

He fights against her aid, but knowing she can not leave him here, she readies him for the trip back down.

“John,” she shouts in his ear, “ We have to go now. If we stay here, we’re going to die, and that’s not an option, you hear me? So get up, suck it up and keep going. Just stay on my ass and follow.”

And with a great bull of the storm ripping at them, and with Michal Englert’s camera taking us along, the trip back down begins.

The back story of both will be told, all taken from Ty Gagne’s article “High Places: Footprints in the Snow Lead to an Emotional Rescue.”

Englert and Szumowska share director credit here.

Actor Naomi Watts (“21 Grams,” “The Impossible”) already an accomplished performer, simply inhales the very essence of our hero Pam Bales.

In a display of incredible workmanship, “John” Billy Howle (“On Chesil Beach”) shows us why British trained actors are so splendid in small roles.

Sophie Okonedo, Denis O’Hare and Parker Sawyers fill in the important co-starring roles in a very important and powerful true story.

Mt. Washington is a beautiful and equally dangerous beauty, but it’s a credit to the team that the film was actually filmed in the Slovenian section of the Alps, where filming is much cheaper than in New Hampshire.

“Infinite Storm” opens in Maine at Waterville’s Railroad Square Theater at 17 Railroad Square on Friday, March 25.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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