About the film (courtesy of Lionsgate):
For best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now Becky and Hunter’s expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights in this adrenaline-fueled thriller costarring Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Fall looks to be a cinematic experience that could very easily be someone’s worst nightmare, especially those that suffer from from acrophobia – an intense fear of situations that involve heights. From a presentation perspective, this towering thriller is filmed effectively enough that, at some point over the duration, you’ll most likely get that empty butterfly feeling in your belly; and not in a good way. Can this little guy climb to the upper tiers of the box office or will it plummet quickly into obscurity?
Working off of a production budget of only about three million dollars, Fall needs to engage its audience and also use their own fears, anxiety and imagination against them. Writer/director Scott Mann (Heist (2015)) looks to “do more with less” as he leads a mostly B-list roster of actors, Jeffrey Dean Morgan being the most notable, to give career defining performances to get this one off the ground. Grace Caroline Currey (Shazam! (2019)) and Virginia Gardner (Project Almanac (2015)) are the two actors that receive, by far, the most screen time. The good thing is that the pair have almost 50 credits to their collective names which means that they’ve been around the block a time or two. And being that the focal point is on them to sell this movie, it’s a good thing that they look as though they’ve been here before.
I have no problem with the performances, nor do I take issue with the casting (Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a good legitimizing name to be attached). Fear, worry, anger, compassion and whatever other emotion you want to throw into the mix was effectively conveyed throughout most of this movie. Feasibility, on the other hand, was not executed quite as smoothly. No pun intended here, but the plot required a few too many leaps of faith to keep everything glued together without totally exposing flaws. It seems as though the filmmakers were aware of this to some degree as a line about “MacGyver’ing” some was spoken. I get it, in order to help the narrative along, you have to take some liberties with believability.
The other thing that I’d add about what hurts the enjoyability of Fall is its runtime. The overall runtime of 107 minutes is not bad on paper, especially given what we’ve been subjected to more times than not over the last several years. Still, trimming roughly ten or so minutes could have made for a much tighter project. It’s that extra minute or two here and there allows you to become detached, start thinking too much about what transpired as you begin to pick things apart. Keep it moving filmmakers and don’t let us catch our breaths if you want to keep your foot on the adrenaline pedal.
Fall is somewhat gimmicky, but effective enough to not lose all credibility. And while predictable at times, especially to me given part of their marketing strategy, there’s enough going on that keeps things mildly entertaining. I do feel that seeing this in a theater versus waiting to watch it at home should give viewers a better overall experience. However, there’s not enough substance will warrant me to strongly recommend checking this one out in the theater. Maybe the experience will be even better if, when it comes to home viewing, we’re gifted an original rated-R cut.
Fall drops in theaters Friday, August 12 with early showtimes Thursday evening. If you can stomach it, maybe check this one out.
