The Falling (2014)

The Falling; a movie that not a lot of people have seen. This is one of those cases where a movie seems to slip under the radar and everyone goes to see another movie instead. Sadly this movie came out on the same week "Avengers: Age of Ultron" came out; one of the worst things you could do if you're movie isn't big and mega like Age of Ultron is releasing that movie on the same week as a big/mega movie comes out. If you do something like that it's most likely that nobody is going to see you're movie and you're going to lose loads of money in the process; thankfully however I had the privalage of seeing The Falling as well as seeing Age of Ultron. The first thing I would like to point out is that The Falling has a very weird and strange atmospheric feel to it; after a sudden incident that happens towards the beginning of the film you suddenly find that the girls in the school begin to have fainting fits, and it's never really discussed why these girls are having these fits. This is one of the positives of the film as it leaves you to you're own imagination to why these girls are having the fits; but at the same time this is also a negative, because the fits are so weird and disorientating that it places you out of the movie at points. You feel disorientated along with the fits themselves and this leads to quite an uncomfortable viewing experience; it's like you're having a fit along with the girls on-screen. The fact that you don't know why the girls are having fits makes this situation worse; as you feel conflicted with what is presented on-screen, and with the ideas you have inside your head, it's quite a confusing, complicated, and disorientating mix. The worst thing on the other hand is not the disorientating viewing experience; it is the sexual politics that are the worst things about the movie. Honestly; they're are multiple sex scenes presented in this film, in fact way too many of them. They're not explicit nor graphic but they make the viewing experience very uncomfortable; the one thing I thought whilst watching The Falling was "Is this a sexual awakening drama?" because I did not get the sense that I was watching a film about girls having faints, and the fact that we need to find out what's causing these faints; it felt more like Carol Morley wanted to show us a film which demonstrates sex among different couples, I DID NOT GO INTO THE FALLING TO WATCH A FILM ABOUT SEX; I WENT INTO THE FALLING TO DISCOVER THE MYSTERY TO WHY THESE SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE HAVING FAINTING FITS! The film also drags at times as well; the film is 102 minutes long, but ultimately from my personal viewing experience the film felt like it was 120 minutes long. I'm not sure if it was due to the uncomfortable feelings that I was receiving that caused the movie to feel like it was longer than it's supposed to be, or if it was the fact that certain parts of the movie felt a bit boring, or maybe both; but either way this isn't very good at all. Personally if I was working on the cutting room floor for this film I would take out MOST OF THE SEX SCENES WHICH ARE REALLY GRATUITOUS AND UNNECESSARY, AND TAKE THE MOVIE DOWN TO ABOUT 85 MINUTES LONG! But despite the fact that quite a lot of this movie is uncomfortable, disorientating, conflicting, confusing, and complicated; there are so many good things in this movie that make up for it's major faults, and make it as a whole a good movie which is actually worth watching. Firstly the acting in this movie is so good; Maisie Williams from "Game of Thrones" is excellent as Lydia Lamont in this movie. She is the girl that is mainly conflicted by the fits, and she does a brilliant job at portraying these fits. There is also a plot point between her and a friend of hers named Abigail Mortimer which may have a connection to why these girls are having these fits, and Maisie Williams executes this hint with ease and her overall performance is the best thing in this movie. Florence Pugh is also very good at playing Abigail Mortimer despite the fact that she spends most of her time on-screen sleeping with her boyfriend; the only reason why her performance is very good is because she helps develop the friendship between her and Lydia Lamont, and overall it helps with developing the clue to why the girls end up having the fits later on in the film. The teachers who work in the school are also portrayed extremely well by their actors; as they demonstrate to us (the audience) that there is a possibility that maybe these girls are acting out the fits and faking them. This does lead to a very conflicting but interesting idea in which you can think about in your head, and ultimately help you to come to you're own conclusion to why these girls are having the fits. But the teachers as well as every other character in this movie set up these ideas with cleverness, smartness, and above all with ease; and for that I have to give the actors in this movie props. Like I said before this movie does a fantastic job at setting up ideas and making you think about these ideas over a couple of days until you ultimately come up with a conclusion; this is one of the best things a movie could do when it's ultimately about thoughts and different ideas. I thought about this movie for quite some time after I left the cinema, and to be fairly honest with you I've never really come to a conclusion to why the girls in the school ended up having fainting fits; but to this day I've still been trying to reach a conclusion and I'm not going to stop until I do. Finally the soundtrack is haunting; you might be thinking that I mean that as a negative, but actually I don't... I consider that as a positive. The soundtrack's haunting tone works for the film's uneasy, weird, and strange atmosphere; when the girl's start having fits the music kicks in and ultimately this adds to the weirdness of these faints, and the strangeness of the atmosphere. At times the soundtrack makes the atmosphere very haunting and unsettling, and again this isn't a negative for a soundtrack which is meant to sound haunting and unsettling; at times the soundtrack does a fantastic job at making you feel unsettled (in a good way) especially towards the end of the film when the soundtrack transcends into horror and despair. So I have to say "well done" to the guys that worked on the music for this film. Ultimately if you hate films which have a weird, strange, and an uncomfortable atmosphere; then you're going to tear this movie apart. I ultimately thought that this was a good movie despite the fact that I wished I had the ability to take out most of the sex scenes, and turn this 102 minute movie into an 85 minute movie. This movie as a whole would have been a much stronger piece if those sex scenes we're taken out; but as it stands right now the best thing I can say about this movie is that it's good, but nothing more than that... just like I did with "Avengers: Age of Ultron". The positives in this movie are really major positives and they save the movie from being lower than good, and I would easily say to anyone that you should see this movie for the positives. But I would also say that you should beware of the major negatives of this movie because they do really affect you're viewing experience of The Falling if you let them. I'm going to give The Falling an enthusiastic, loud and proud 7 out of 10.