Falling is a part of a wave of films lately focusing on aging and dementia, and the relationships between the afflicted and their adult children caring for them. In this case the story revolves around a gay man, John, caring for his bigoted aging father, Willis, who is starting to lose his grip on reality. For me the film tries hard to do a few things all at once but missed something for me that I wish had been a little more refined.
Written and directed by Mortensen (who also stars), Falling leans hard into the bigotry of Henriksen's character, both in the present and in flashbacks to John's youth. The film portrays Willis as a cruel man, not in an overly simplistic way, but still quite a hurtful human being. He is homophobic, racist, and misogynistic, wielding his power position as a white man like a hammer against all around him while still showing us his humanity, especially in his relationship with his granddaughter. So Falling's journey ends up being about forgiveness and the way love and family make relationships complicated. The film is about overcoming all of the bad to reach to the good in each of us.
All of that is well and good but for me the film never quite succeeds in that. Willis is just so abusive the film doesn't hold him accountable enough to make any redemption truly possible. The film keeps showing us his extreme cruelty and then circling back to how the family still loves him and the simple premise of his deserving that love. But despite Henriksen's amazing powerful performance, the film pretty much guilts us into making us care about him without truly earning it. The rest of the cast is forced to kowtow to him simply because he is family. So much of this is challenging and difficult, especially for audiences who may have experienced the kind of ritualistic abuse portrayed here. The film's message to them is one that makes them have to be the bigger person. So Mortensen's character is the typical magical homosexual trope. He is the upstanding, admirable gay man who puts up with it all and still cares for his abusive father. He is asked to take it and we are then to just care about his abuser. There is something truly upsetting about such a story.
It's not that it couldn't be done. Redemption stories are powerful and possible. Even if it's not redemption, but a story of survival of abuse, a story like this can be done. But this story never quite gets through the difficulty of addressing the evil of this man and the sacrifices of those he hurts and jumps to the part where we are supposed to forget all that to see his humanity.
There is a lot of discussion right now about whether or not straight men can play gay men (along similar debates with other human characteristics) and that's not what I'm getting at here. I do wonder however if Mortensen's straight experience blinded him in attempting to tell this story, to the effect and nature of the experience of homophobia so that his story lacks enough authenticity to make this narrative is successful. I don't think the film captures enough to make his character's arc work.
It is not a terrible misfire it's just not quite there, never quite convincing enough. It all feels a bit surface. Despite how hard the film tries to pull strings, and the viciousness it uses to pretend at authenticity, the film remains rather placid. However Henriksen truly does excel in his difficult role, making as much as he can with the thinly drawn character. Linney is also incredible in the little bit she's on screen.
I admire what Mortensen attempts here but it doesn't make it work for me. I tend to be drawn to films that deal with difficult relationships but this one just never felt honest enough for me to buy into it or feel it. It feels like Mortensen developed the queer character as a gimmick, as a target for the abuse and bigotry of his father, as if it would be more powerful than if he was a straight man. But in doing so his identity is reduced to a stereotype (not that Mortensen plays him as anything other than a plain man) just there to elicit sympathy. And I prefer my queer characters to be more developed and complicated. Mortensen doesn't get there and neither does his film.
So we are left with a rather simple story about how we can love people who hurt us, a story that there is some value in, but that this film doesn't do enough to earn.
Falling
Starring: Lance Henriksen, Viggo Mortensen, Terry Chen, Laura Linney, Hanna Gross, Paul Gross, David Cronenberg
Writer/Director: Viggo Mortensen
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