Grade: B+
I absolutely hate heights, but I love roller-coasters, zip-lining, and choosing to WALK down the Eiffel Tower, in the open-air stairwell. It’s a weird dichotomy, but because of it, I was drawn to a movie like Fall, which opened in theaters today. The film felt like a thrill ride, and – like one – made me want to brag that I made it through, and wish they had T-shirts that say so.
Fall opens with 3 avid climbers (husband-and-wife Dan and Becky, and Becky’s best friend Hunter) scaling an impossible-looking mountain. I’m not revealing anything that isn’t in the trailer when I say that tragedy strikes. Dan falls to his death. Cut to almost a year later when Becky is an alcoholic pill-popping barfly who frequently drunk-dials Dan’s voicemail, while his ashes collect dust in the unopened box they were mailed in. Hunter shows up with an idea for Becky: the two of them are going to drive 6 hours to the middle of the desert, and climb a 2,000 foot abandoned radio tower, where – at the top – Becky can scatter Dan’s ashes.
From the moment they begin the climb, Fall’s tension is unrelenting – almost unbearable. I squirmed in my seat, and my hands would not stop sweating. They sweat even now, when I think about the movie. This is one of the most intense, exhausting experiences I’ve ever had at a film. When they are at the top, the ladders that saw them the last 200 feet collapse and fall to the ground, leaving them stranded up there. It is a small platform with a thin pole coming out the middle, which goes up another 30 feet to the blinking red light. In the nighttime scenes, that’s the only light they have.
I learn that the actors were “only” 100 feet up during filming – not 2,000. And I assume they had some combination of harnesses, mats, and nets. Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner as Becky and Hunter create fleshed-out credible characters with believable chemistry. Gardner in particular (obsessed with getting as many likes and follows as possible while she documents this for her Instagram) made me think of the infectious spunkiness of Reese Witherspoon or Florence Pugh. The two girls try various methods to get down or summon rescue, and many almost work, but then heartbreakingly go wrong. They are running out of water. They have no food. It’s windy and there are vultures attracted to wounds on humans. It’s dangerous to fall asleep, because you might roll off.
As they get to talking, we are provided with the first of two big plot twists. I predicted it. You might too, just from reading this. Fortunately, the film doesn’t spend too much time on it. The other twist felt cheap and corny. It’s in M. Night Shyamalan territory. It made me replay previous scenes in my head, but ultimately I concluded that those bits would have had more impact if the filmmakers played straight with us.
I’m not experienced enough to detect green screens or that kind of camera trickery. Make no mistake: what I saw looked thoroughly authentic. I felt like I was up there with them every step of the way. The ending settles into standard cinematic fare. Frustratingly, some scenes aren’t shown, which deny us what would have been the most satisfying payoff. But all in all, Fall will likely be the most indelible movie of the year for me. I can’t think of another movie that made me forget about real life, or affected me physically, more than this one. I felt such a relief when it was over. In that respect, they did their job. I would love to see people watch it.
Just because I rate a film highly doesn’t mean I enjoyed it.
Grade: B+
Film Reviews by Mark 
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