The Falling

Released Aug 7, 2015

1 hr. 42 min.

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

List

75%

40 Reviews

Tomatometer

35%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A mysterious fainting epidemic strikes several students (Maisie Williams, Florence Pugh) at an all-girl's high school in late-1960s England.

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Critics Consensus

Well-acted and overall unsettling, The Falling delivers thought-provoking thrills -- and suggests a bright future for writer-director Carol Morley.

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Audience Member

Slow, mostly predictable, and about as emotionally moving as a Zoloft prescription.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/05/23

Full Review

Hugo S

"The Falling" has an eerie and unique story: a girls' school in the late 60's is the stage of an epidemic hysterical fainting. The strange phenomenon is a metaphor for the contagious sexual liberation that starts with the death of an emancipated girl. The movie is a melodrama with some subtle elements of the supernatural. Beautifully weird!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/19/23

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David M

For a film that centers on what may or may not be an outbreak of hysteria, this is surprisingly low-key - and all the more powerful for its restraint. Maisie Williams' lead performance is nothing short of remarkable. Given that this is a film about said hysteria amongst a group of girls, I wondered if the naming of Florence Pugh's character as Abigail was a nod to The Crucible. Similarly to that great play, the words of girls or young women are doubted and second-guessed; by adults - especially men; it's also very specifically a film about the specific, often unvoiced, experience of teenage girls learning what their bodies are and how they relate to those bodies with their minds, emotions and sexuality. A mention also for the excellent music, which together with director Carol Morley's deft uses of flashed images throughout, weaves an unsettling air of uncertainty all through the film, an uncertainty which is never fully resolved.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Audience Member

i watched this movie it was little too boring for me also i didn't know what was going on.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

I can't say much without spoiling the story but the last couple of minutes of the feature are an amazing and truly deep emotional payback. Well done!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I really liked this film. the nostalgic British setting was brought through very well in props, costume set and filming. I thought some of the acting was good, though it definitely had room for improvement. (quite a bit of it felt a little over-acty-ish) There's something so undeniably frustrating about this film - and I think that's part of why I like it. The thwarted young girls, who are completely unheard and ignored by adults in the uptight, keep-your-emotions-to-yourself '60s were portrayed well through (what I think was) the metaphor of fainting. the girls, overcome by a swelling grief and a feeling of palpable connection to each other and their dead, fall. The ignorance of the older generation is then conveyed by adults literally stepping over their fallen bodies, as if bored or uninterested in their expression of grief. Dismissive, in a word. And the complex, nuanced and largely disturbing relationships between characters evokes the confusing emotions and inescapably huge feelings which are felt by exploring teenagers and young adults. the choice to have Abi on screen for so little time is a point of analytical conflict for me: on one hand, I find it interesting that her brief time on screen triggered such a cataclysm of events, and her absence only makes her more unattainable and mysteriously magnetic; on the other hand, I just found it frustrating not to get to know her well enough, so that we might have been able to empathise more with our protagonist who misses her so much and mourns her untimely death. towards the end of the film, I did start to feel like I was having déjà vu: I don't think they needed to have three whole scenes of Lyla disrupting assembly, in fact, I think the fewer of these scenes, the more impactful that last scene of all the girls convulsing and spacing out would have been. Many parts of the film were hard to watch (and if you've seen it, you'll know exactly what I mean) but this is done intentionally, to make it chilling and uncomfortable, as viewers are forced to watch some horrible mistakes be made by people who are still learning how to cope with growing up, with grief, a lack of stability and support and some very weird and upsetting family shit. the second half of the film was admittedly rather wooly in terms of plot, but the characters pulled it together a bit, with big secrets coming out along with a tsunami of suppressed emotions. Overall, 'the Falling' feels like one of those films that don't feel objectively good or bad, but my gut instinct says that I enjoyed it, so there. (also i really really REALLY love the cast and i think they perfect for their roles)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

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Carol Morley

Director

Maisie Williams

Lydia

Maxine Peake

Eileen

Florence Pugh

Abbie

Joe Cole

Kenneth

Greta Scacchi

Miss Mantel

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Leslie Felperin

Hollywood Reporter

There are so many acute insights, striking images and impressive performances in it, not least from lead Maisie Williams, it's a tragic shame that elsewhere inexperience shows and the last 15 minutes devolve into a morass of melodramatic incident.

Dec 15, 2015

Full Review

Elise Nakhnikian

Slant Magazine

The film all leads to a melodramatic climax that wraps up the main character's explosive acting out in a too-neat package.

Rated: 2/4

Aug 23, 2015

Full Review

Mark Kermode

Observer (UK)

Even when the narrative plays its melodramatic hand, and closure is dragged half-drowned from the waters of ambiguity, the ripples of unresolved tension remain unstilled.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 26, 2015

Full Review

Marya E. Gates

Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack)

You can also feel shades of Picnic At Hanging Rock in some of the film’s shot compositions and its woozy atmosphere.

Feb 13, 2024

Full Review

Jordan Brooks

Vague Visages

Morley pushes the film’s "mystery” beyond any audience guessing games to a level of bewilderment above any useful analysis, leaving viewers in a state of excited shock.

Aug 2, 2023

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Jennie Kermode

Eye for Film

A difficult film, and a film about difficult women.

Rated: 3.5/5

Jan 30, 2023

Full Review

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Synopsis

A mysterious fainting epidemic strikes several students (Maisie Williams, Florence Pugh) at an all-girl's high school in late-1960s England.

Director: Carol Morley
Executive Producer: Ian Davies, Lizzie Francke, Peter Hampden, Christine Langan, Rebecca Long, Norman Merry, Andrew Orr
Screenwriter: Carol Morley
Distributor: Cinedigm
Production Co: Cannon and Morley Productions, BBC Films, independent entertainment, Head Gear Films, British Film Institute (BFI)
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 7, 2015, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 9, 2016

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