Fall

Holy cow. I think we have another movie that nobody but me will ever like, but holy cow. This might be the most intense movie I've ever seen. I watch a lot of movies that could be described as intense, but this one had me shaken before it was 1/2 over, and left me that way after it ended.

Basically, an open-air counterpart to "Open Water", as two freeclimbers tackle a 2,000 foot decomissioned television broadcast antenna with the intention of scattering the ashes of one's husband—who died in front of them in a climbing accident from the top—and Things Go Wrong.

It doesn't have the quiet poetry of "Open Water", and unfortunately it has more than its share of overly contrived, difficult-to-believe, or predictable moments, but what it does right, it does incredibly right. It makes up for the handful of sore-thumb contrived moments with some stirring visual and occasional narrative intensity. For the first half my palms sweat like I was watching a James Kingston rooftopping video.

Make no mistake: you WILL get vertigo watching this. A lot of it, not just a little. It's unique trick, not one I've seen a movie leverage so effectively before.

I cannot imagine how they did the stunts and got many of the shots in this movie. There isn't a lot of action but most of it happens very visibly thousands of feet off the ground, far from any visible safety or support. There are a lot of wide shots of terrifyingly precarious situations. I don't know if these actresses are real climbers, or it was all incredibly realistic CGI, or what. Suffice to say: any person with a reasonable fear of hieghts is likely to find this movie harrowing. Kind of like a James Kingston video. (Yes, I've mentioned him twice. Google his videos, if you're curious if you might like this.)

Even before it gets going, the opening scene is one of the most intense climbing scenes I've ever seen, taking place on a cliff face that is very visibly hundreds of feet off the ground, with shots from all angles, including down from above.

So, it's got the survival-in-isolated-situations things, and the climbing thing, either of which is usually enough alone to get extreme interest from me. And all of the climbing scenes are extremely well done.

I was tempted to say it's a good date movie, but I have to say, I think it might be a little too intense for that. I'm not sure what a member of the opposite sex would think of someone who suggests they watch this.

I thought it was, well... too flawed, mostly in terms of those regrettable contrived-seeming moments, to call great... but still... wow. And it's definitely unlike any other movie I've seen, except, broadly, very spare survival flicks like "Open Water" or, on the documentary side, "Touching The Void".

Despite the handful of flaws, this is something special. This definitely earns some sort of place of honor just for being what it is and succeeding in being so affecting despite those flaws.

It's also got a brief cameo from Jeffrey Dean Morgan (as one of the six characters in this entire film), who adds some welcome gravitas, despite playing a good guy.

I was gripped, and sincerely bothered by parts of it, something not many movies ever accomplish, and a good thing in my book. Not that it's hard—with the dizzyingly gorgeous cinematography on constant display here, anyone with a reasonable fear of would likely have a very hard time watching this.

And then they occasionally reach further, and for passing but very affecting moments, take it a just a smidge further. No spoilers. This movie saves the shocking things for so few moments that when they arrive they hit hard.

But I honestly can't recommend it to anyone else as a film to watch. It's too intense.

I'm going to give it an honorable mention, even though it's perhaps not as good a movie overall as many I give that label to. But the unique things it does well, are pretty unique, and it really does them well. It's just a little too different not to give special recognition to.

EDIT: After writing this I googled, mostly to see how the stunts and cinematography was done. Rotton Tomatoes says, "Fundamentally absurd yet as evocatively minimalist as its title, Fall is a sustained adrenaline rush for viewers willing to suspend disbelief." That nails it pretty well, and though it sounds like hype, it's not an exaggeration. "Absurd", "minimalist", and "sustained adrenaline rush for those who suspend disbelief" is exactly right, and quite possibly an understatement.

Also apparently the actresses did all the stunts themselves. Wow.

I was also pleased to see reports that many audiences responded well to the film, and it was fairly well liked by some reviewers. Nice to see, usually I'm the only one who likes these kinds of movies.