63
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFalling doesn't transform its emotional landscape into a simple question of rejection or forgiveness. It's comfortable knowing that meanness and affection can exist in the same person, and that tolerance, even when it only flows in one direction, benefits both giver and recipient.
- 85TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondFalling is a finely drawn character drama, as you might expect from much of Mortensen’s acting career, and a film that pays attention to small details that bring these people to life.
- 80VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeFalling is unpretentious and perfectly accessible to mainstream audiences. Mortensen’s patience, his way with actors and his trust in our intelligence are not unlike late-career Eastwood, which isn’t a bad place to be so early in one’s directing career.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawIt’s a really valuable work, beautifully edited and shot, with a wonderful performance by the veteran actor Lance Henriksen: a sombre, clear-eyed look at the bitter endgame of dementia.
- 58The Film StageJordan RaupThe Film StageJordan RaupMortensen is clearly attuned to the emotional toll of maintaining such a relationship—loving someone even if they don’t show any love back—but once this idea is firmly laid out early on, the repetitive narrative doesn’t expand to reveal more layers of complexity.
- 58IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichMortensen’s first effort behind the camera never settles into the expected grooves of its genre or premise. On the contrary, the film vibrates at its own unrecognizable frequency as soon as it starts, and only allows for easy categorization during the clunkier moments when it bumps against clichés like a boat that would rather crash into lighthouses than use them for guidance.
- 50ConsequenceJoe LipsettConsequenceJoe LipsettDespite great direction by Mortensen, who also delivers a strong performance alongside Henriksen and (briefly) Linney, Falling is a repetitive and exhausting exercise that never gets around to unpacking why the audience should care about its ailing patriarch character. It’s too long and too one note for too little pay-off.
- 42The PlaylistRobert DanielsThe PlaylistRobert DanielsIt ultimately crashes into a heap due to a host of rambling non-connective ideas and tonally grating dialogue.
- 20SlashfilmJason GorberSlashfilmJason GorberFalling fails hard, unable to generate sympathy for its protagonists and relying entirely on the charms of its writer/director to sustain interest. It’s a shame, as Mortensen’s a fine performer with a strong legacy, but the film feels like the worst kind of passion project, one that forgot to bring the audience in for what amounts to a film more masturbatory than moving.