[VIFF 2020] REVIEW: 'Falling' sends you into the abyss but never quite pulls you back out
Lance Henriksen and Viggo Mortensen star in Mortensen’s directorial debut, Falling.
It took Viggo Mortensen three years to get enough funding for his directorial debut, Falling, and I expected nothing less than full commitment and passion from the guy who stayed in character as Aragorn after breaking his foot in a scene. Mortensen did nearly everything for this film: writing, directing, acting and even writing some of the music. Though Mortensen clarified that the events depicted in the film were not meant to be biographical, it is dedicated to his brothers and tells the fictional story of the bond between father and son.
Mortensen stars as John, a gay man living in California with his husband, Eric (Terry Chen), and their daughter, Monica (Gabby Velis). He’s tasked with taking care of his elderly father, Willis (Lance Henriksen), who is visiting from their childhood home in upstate New York and clearly showing some signs of dementia. Willis is visiting because he’s looking to move closer to his family, but Willis pushes John’s patience because not only is Willis forgetful and temperamental, he’s also misogynistic and a homophobe, and in between eating, drinking, smoking and sleeping, makes it well-known that he does not approve of his son’s lifestyle and sexual orientation. He continually berates and belittles those around him, especially John, his sister Sarah (Laura Linney), and Sarah’s two kids.
John’s relationship with his father is mostly told through flashbacks, where a much younger Willis (Sverrir Gudnason) imposes a domineering presence in their incredibly patriarchal household. Willis’ behaviour – and perhaps dissatisfaction with his own life – leads to a divorce with their loving mother, Gwen (Hannah Gross), after she’s fed up with the occasional bouts of physical violence, emotional abuse and inequity in their relationship. Willis soon finds another woman, Jill (Bracken Burns), but she, too, later becomes fed up with his behaviour.
Willis’ constant stream of politically conservative commentary and foul language will put the audience’s patience to the test, and if John is the proxy for the audience, it’s not exactly clear why he’s so patient. There are tender moments between younger Willis and adolescent John, but it seems like the bad far outweigh the good. It’s easily understood why Gwen leaves, but why John and Sarah don’t leave remains a pretty big mystery.
That’s why, ultimately, even though John and Willis have a big cathartic fight that leads to an emotional embrace, it doesn’t feel like there’s a higher level of understanding between the two characters to be attained. Mortensen the director is reaching for this one moment where a strained father-son relationship could be understood, but that moment never quite comes, and when old Willis returns to the farm, we don’t get the feeling that he’s dramatically improved from his misogynistic ways. A little more forgiving, perhaps, but nothing to imply that the lessons have stuck.
Perhaps that’s the point; we have an infinite well of patience and understanding for those close to us, even if they may not always be positive influences. But what sort of positive change is imbued upon John remained murky, and at the end we’re left emotionally drained and somewhat dissatisfied.
Falling gets two and a half stars out of four.
