Fall (2022) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Scott Mann

Starring:  Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mason Gooding

The opening moments of Fall feature a married couple named Becky (Currey) and Dan (Gooding) rock climbing on the side of a mountain with their friend Hunter (Gardner) nearby, but not close enough to assist when Dan falls to his death.   Or, considering how phony the visuals look when he see Dan clinging to his rope while the camera looks down, he falls into a green screen abyss.   

Fast forward to "51 weeks later" and Becky is still mourning Dan while drowning her sorrows in alcohol and avoiding phone calls from her concerned father (Morgan), who not unreasonably wants Becky to move on with her life.   Becky resolves not to do this until she gets a call from Hunter, whom she hasn't seen in a while.   Hunter became a social media influencer performing daring and deadly stunts to the delight of her thousands of followers.    Hunter proposes to Becky to break out of her doldrums and climb an abandoned 2,000 foot-tall radio tower in the middle of some Southwestern state.  Becky surprisingly agrees, and Hunter documents the entire event for her Instagram account.  

Becky is still in remarkably good shape despite drinking nightly and not doing any climbing for the past year, but nonetheless the climb of the rickety ladder ascending the tower goes south quickly.   Hunter and Becky make it to the top and sit on a small, round platform nearly a half-mile from the ground, but when Becky attempts to descend the ladder, the ladder crumbles and strands Hunter and Becky on top.  Their cell phones get no signal, the drone Hunter brings along to provide aerial shots can only fly so far away, Becky dropped the bag which contains their water bottle onto the satellite dish below, and vultures being hovering and swooping as hours turn into days in which the friends are stranded.

It is here where Fall becomes an entertaining mixed bag.  Hunter and Becky try not to lose hope, but as each of their plans is thwarted by outside forces or just plain bad luck, it is almost impossible for the women to not start thinking of their mortality.   Fall keeps us involved because it functions as a nightmare in which you're stuck someplace and can't escape.   Granted, Becky and Hunter put themselves in their predicament, but you still can't help but feel sorry for them.  Some of the developments which pop up strain credulity to its limit, however, while the ending leaves you scratching your head.  The movie is reminiscent of the dark and menacing Open Water (2004), another movie in which two people are stranded (that time amongst sharks) with just enough wherewithal to understand their situation while falsely hoping they can escape it.