FALL

A major problem of this movie is a cliché backstory that adds overlong convoluted melodrama to a film that should have been at least half an hour shorter.

Truck stalks car. Girl is stranded on rock surrounded by sharks. Dynamite transport has to cross bumpy terrain. Some of the best thrillers take a simple premise and milk a movie from it that’s filled to the brim with suspense.

Fall tries to do the same with an elevator pitch that probably wasn’t much more than ‘two girls are stuck atop a windy 2,000 feet metal pole’, but the results are taut, suspenseful nor particularly ground-breaking.

Part of the problem lies in a cliché backstory that adds overlong convoluted melodrama to a film that should have been at least half an hour shorter. Not helping either are the performances of the lead acting duo, who never manage to sell the fear of dying that’s integral to the success of this kind of film.

And then there’s the lack of invention, both in the plot and in the by-the-numbers direction, which ultimately lets Fall down the most. What a shame, because I’m sure a much more thrilling film could have been wrought from this premise.

release: 2022

director: Scott Mann

starring: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan