While I certainly don't want to dismiss the entire filmography of writer-director Peter Greenaway, especially when he has helmed at least two films that have stayed seared into my memory since I first saw them, he is someone you should point others to if they keep complaining about just how cold and cerebral Stanley Kubrick was. Because, whatever else they offer, Peter Greenaway movies often feel like they have been designed to amuse and test Peter Greenaway. Some are more intricate than others, but almost all of them focus on design and intellectual sport ahead of any real attempts to explore the human condition.
I was wary before I started watching The Falls for two reasons. One, the very lengthy runtime (approximately 195 minutes). Two, the fact that someone on a website had decided to describe it as "a dazzlingly ambitious sci-fi epic of singular wit and imagination." Some people may agree with that assessment. I couldn't disagree more. It doesn't feel ambitious to me, let alone dazzlingly ambitious, and I didn't find it witty or imaginative. It does feel singular though, I'll give it that.
Presented in the style of a staid TV documentary, The Falls gives viewers a peek into the lives of 92 people who were affected by a Violent Unexplained Event (VUE). Each person shown here has a surname starting with the letters "Fall", but that isn't the only common denominator. Many of them also share new characteristics that cropped up post-VUE (immortality, disabilities, speaking new languages, obsessing about birds), but they also have less common quirks and distractions that the film explores.
Despite the extensive cast portraying the various characters, and despite the music by Michael Nyman, The Falls doesn't ever feel like a film. It's effective in recreating the dry documentaries of the period, I'll give it that, and even the most ridiculous elements are treated with complete seriousness and a gravity that is obviously being used to underline everything with the wit that some (particularly Greenaway himself) have appreciated.
This could have been a weird and fun film that I enjoyed, but it needed to be even more absurd. It also needed to have a much shorter runtime. Over three hours can be a hard sell for any film. It’s interminable when you quickly realise that some people are enjoying humour that really isn’t working for you.
A film I hope to never rewatch, The Falls is coincidentally able to make you fall asleep, make you temporarily fall out of love with cinema, and could even lead to some of your brain cells dying off and falling out your nose (unlikely, but not impossible, it really is THAT bad). Tiresome, indulgent, messy, this is the worst of Greenaway. I give it some kudos for the presentation, but the actual content isn’t worth your time.
3/10
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3 hours does seem pretty long for a mockumentary. Maybe if it were spread into episodes on a streaming service so it'd be easier to parcel it out into smaller bites.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it could have worked better as a conceptual mini-series.
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