A three-way romance with performances from two of my favorite up-and-coming actors? A hottie three-for-one special? Falling feels expressly tailor-made for me, and yet I couldn’t help wish it had either stuck to a rom-com formula, or gone much more realistic or cerebral. By failing to adhere to anything unique or out of the box, Falling instead appears destined to fall straight in the Walmart discount bin.
KJ Apa plays Jack, a lawyer/womanizer content in his comfortable living. His best friend, Johnny (Archie Renaux) is a struggling writer, constantly on the hunt for his one true love. And then there’s Jillian, played by Isabel May, a free spirit who loves travel. Between the three of them, a rather interesting love triangle was anticipated to unfold. And while there certainly is one, it’s much more traditional than expected. Jack and Jillian hook up first, and she slowly changes the way he views love and relationships. Meanwhile, Johnny appears to connect with Jillian on an intellectual level, but can the two of them actually have a future together?
Johnny’s pregnant ex-girlfriend makes for a notable distraction, but fatherhood barely makes a dent on his character arc. A zippy narration constantly updates us on our lovers’ dynamics and inner monologues. We find out later that this narration has an actual purpose, but it feels plucked straight from the pages of a book. It rarely adds anything substantial to the proceedings, and if anything, actually makes me wish it was more cleverly written. The trio all give admirable performances, particularly Isabel May, fresh off the whirlwind success of blockbuster slasher sequel Scream 7. May is practically in a league of her own as these two men pine over her.
Hoping for a thrupple or something similar to a Challengers-style relationship would be an egregious mistake. The film barely interacts with this potential aspect of the storyline. Instead, it explores the individual relationship from each one-sided end, rarely interacting with the idea of being in love with more than one person at a time. Additionally, the final act, and particularly the ending is extremely unsatisfying, and does not feel fulfilling given the somewhat lengthy nearly two hour runtime.
This could easily be trimmed down and supplemented with comedy a bit to make for a pleasing enough, albeit forgettable rom-com. As it stands, though, Falling totally misjudges audience expectations, and gives very little dramatic heft to the lead players. The trio individually have experience enough that they could handle any kind of depth given to their characters. That would be if any of them felt more realistic and less like superfluous London caricatures.
There are some mixed messages happening here, though the heart is always in the right place. There are too few memorable sequences, and even fewer genuinely romantic moments to speak of. For all of those reasons, Falling swiftly falls to the wayside, barely registering as a new entry in the romance canon. In a year filled with some standout romantic gems (see Wuthering Heights, Leviticus, Charlie Harper), this facet particularly disappoints. Next time, one hopes that May, Apa, and Renaux can be given a substantial lift to their roles. There’s something worth exploring and telling here, but you’d never know given how dull the narrative becomes. Simply a shrug of a movie, Falling has a couple cute spots, but will mostly leave you wishing it had more to say.
Falling drops into limited release on Friday, October 9th. It comes to VOD on Tuesday, November 10th.
