Fall

Fall

Starring Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Directed by Scott Mann

There are two things I'm particularly frightened of: spiders and heights. I watched "Arachnophobia" when I was a teen and I haven't seen it since, yet several of its moments have left indelible imprints in my memory (I still check my shoes and cereal for those creepy crawlies).  So when I heard about "Fall," I knew it was something I wasn't looking forward to, despite enjoying documentary films about real-life free solo climbers like "Free Solo" and "The Alpinist," but I knew it was something I had to see. Back in the day they did marketing for Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left" by mentioning that the audience can escape the horrors by repeating, "it's only a movie," and I found myself uttering those words in my mind several times during this film, but yet my hands grew clammy and sweaty, I cringed in my seat, and had to look away several times - things I make fun of other people for doing in horror films - but here I was being a hypocrite. And in the end, despite the film's narrative flaws, I left the theater thinking about it and have spent the last few days since still thinking about it, and this might be another one that'll remain in my psyche for years to come.

Married couple Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Dan (Mason Gooding) and Becky's best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner) enjoy living life to the fullest and seeking the next big adrenaline high, and are participating in a mountain climb when Dan stumbles and accidentally falls to his death. One year later, Becky is still mourning Dan's death and has isolated herself from Hunter and her father James (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), drowning her sorrows in alcohol and tears. Hunter - now an Instagram celebrity who's been filming herself partaking in several wild adventures - arrives on Becky's doorstep with an idea: Becky needs to conquer her fears by joining her in climbing the decommissioned B67 TV tower, the fourth highest structure in America, and scattering Dan's ashes at the top. Becky reluctantly agrees, and the girls set out to climb the rickety ladder to the top. Despite the perils to get up there, they manage to make it, but as they start the decent down the ladder gives way and they find themselves trapped at the top. As the days go by and rescue seems less and less likely, they have to find a way to survive together despite secrets bubbling to the surface that threatens to fracture the long-standing friendship.

Scott Mann is best known for directing the Robert De Niro (and Jeffrey Dean Morgan) thriller "Heist," and he brings his flair for the dramatic in "Fall" as well, focusing on the lives of two women as they face the elements and utter hopelessness in order to find a way to survive. The cinematography he invokes is nothing short of miraculous, as it fully seems that they're atop a 2,000 foot tower (in contrast, the Eiffel Tower is only approximately 1,083 feet) and the hopelessness they feel is also felt by the audience as well. Every sweeping moment when the girls look down and see how small the world is below them sent a chill through my very soul, as it's so well done that, again, it seemed like they were actually stuck that high up. It might be my acrophobia, but I was pulled in hook, line, and sinker. I even forgave the lame dialogue and soap opera-esque moments along with the cheap twist added for effect because I was so engrossed in the perilous journey.

"Fall" doesn't only focus on the vertigo but also delivers a thought-provoking premise that affects our lives, and that's how we choose to live our lives. Becky, Dan, and Hunter were thrill seekers who wanted to live life to the fullest and experience all its adventures, and of course it cost Dan his life, but Hunter continued her pursuit to live a rich, full, (and maybe too short) life. Becky, on the other hand, allowed grief and fear to take over and she spent a whole year just wasting away at the bottom of a bottle. To that end, I could understand why Hunter would bring Becky along - to overcome her fear and re-invigorate her original zeal for life - but still, there has to be more safer ways to enjoy living, but it's probably because thinking of climbing anything higher than two feet off the ground sends me into a panic. The film's strength comes as they begin their climb, as the ladder shakes, rungs fall off, and they continually look down to see just how high they've climbed. It's bare-knuckled suspense at its finest, and when the ladder gives out on Becky it's one of my worst fears imaginable come to life on the big screen: dangling helplessly thousands of feet in the air.

Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner give appropriate performances as Becky and Hunter, and despite being stranded with them helplessly thousands of feet in the air, there's not much more to their story than the bare essentials. Becky wants her husband back, and Hunter wants to be Internet famous for her death-defying stunts. They talk about the past, about Dan, and secrets that neither girl wanted to tell the other - but now's just as time as good as any, since they have a captive audience. This is where the story weakens, as even I became comfortable with them up on that small pedestal, before more suspense arrives. Murphy's Law is in full effect here, as every source the women use to escape fall to ruin, where it almost becomes a running gag unintentionally, as we know each thought of escape will fail miserably, either by their own inept hands or the fate of a seemingly vengeful God who wants these two women dead at any cost. The only other big-billed star, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, merely exists as the caring parent and isn't given anything else to work with, and obviously took the job as a favor to his friend Scott Mann. Again, though, these weaker moments can be forgiven due to the insurmountable moments of sheer terror that Mann implements.

They say some films need to be seen "on the biggest screen possible," and it's merely buzz words to get people back into the theater, but "Fall" lives up to that hype. You can't experience the same sense of vertigo and nausea-inducing moments watching from the comfort of your home, but you need to experience this in the theater. Despite its lackluster storytelling, the survival drama shines through and delivers a powerful wallop, even if it could've been cut down by a few minutes - it's treacherous, and it's treacherous viewing, especially for acrophobics, but much like the adrenaline the girls seek, it'll give you that much-needed shot to appreciate the life you have and the fact that you're comfortably rooted on the ground.

The Score: A