Deciding to get away for a while from his flailing music career, John Allman, played by Harry Connick Jr., settles at an empty yet beautiful isolated house located on the cliff of Cyprus. Almost instantly, he learns the harsh facts of life on the cliff edge as he discovers that a number of people, either suicidal or depressive, frequent that very same location. Already his life on this island becomes complex, as all the people he has interacted with in his life, or parts of his life that he thought were at an end, seem to resurface, only this time in a different light.
In the beginning, whatever things started pulling me towards the movie ‘Find Me Falling’ was its blend especially the beginning when John narrates that he had spent most of his adult life being a musician and performing in front of fans. In times of grief like this, as John tries to isolate himself from everything and everyone, he ends up distancing the entire world. That is not the only event that Robert does not actively go out in pursuit of, he also has to make the active decision to stop people from ending their lives. Not really appealing, even if someone wants to engage with people or even less so under current stress. The concept of the movie where a famous character, loved and adored by many, deciding to cut out all social interactions, surprised me.
John discovers that his whereabouts are small, standardized, self contained, and almost everyone seems to know everyone. As a result, volunteers are eager to assist him in everyday chores, in this instance grocery shopping, hence John asks them to bring the groceries to him. Having experienced an influx of visitors, John now actively seeks to not meet anyone, which in itself is amusing because he is living in a place that permanently attracts people that more than anything need to be talked to. The story has an overt overwhelming ‘small world’ essayistic character to it; perhaps this is meant to illustrate how by chance or other key players many meetings happen, which are crucial for the development of the narrative.
The third theme is that of faith and believing that you have a purpose in this life, a purpose that is intended to benefit other people. There is an underlying idea that you need people and that if you haven’t left them when you had the chance, you have been a positive force in their lives. Yet if you have not been so, then you should be afraid of death and its consequences. It is a rather new twist to a common lesson in stories like these, which usually run along the lines that, “Do not seek to surround yourself with people for the sole purpose of being more gratified by their presence.” Instead, the implication is that, “You should be helping them, and if you are not, you are letting down mankind.” In summary, taking an antisocial stance and being a recluse is a ‘sin.’ And even if all that is needed is to let others be, people do feel a sense of neglect when the person has no desire to be civil. As the story progresses, Mr. John come to self realizations through the comical act of trying to build a fence around his house. One of the more memorable moments is John arguing with another character while standing at opposite ends of the fence line.
The movie has no flashbacks but tries to delve into John’s history when he is introduced to the captain of the local police, Manolo, and a local singer Melina. They want him to engage with the island a bit more. But the questions concerning John get more complex when a former love of his named Sia appears (Agni Scott). There are many cliché moments such as former lovers falling back in love, the angst which follows these characters wondering ‘were they not going to ask, did anything happen?’ or the awkward situation where a character witnesses N characters smugly declaring ‘its not what it looks like’ and it is rather a sweeping motion across nothing that was seen and everything is posed to be moments filled with drama.
The reunion of John and Sia is the turning point of the movie for the worst. Romance and family diagram is rather amusing but seeing such moments in soap opera is never worth it. It’s possible to identify repetitive ideas and borrow them in order to allow development of a plot but how they are used here is just banal and a majority of the plot attributes as well as the jokes, are very straight forward and boring.
I thought it was interesting how the backstories of the characters are narrated without any flashbacks; it enhances your sense of living in the present with the characters without being bothered by past experiences. Sometimes, flashback scenes are long to the extent that you lose touch with the present and quite frankly, if the personas in flashbacks do not appear significantly younger, it becomes a bit unnerving. Naturally, there was no need for and flashbacks, this was a great narration but there is a chance it could’ve been cost cutting. However, it does work at the same time.
The exception of some sequences with Miami’s agent, the action happens in Cyprus and a considerable portion is shot on the site. It does include some excellent looking pieces, featuring the coastline and beaches with white sand and where the sea is perfectly blue. Other sequences delve into the cultural aspect of Cyprus, where John attempts to live like a local rather than a traveler. To begin with, it annoys me how the primary language is English in most parts of the story with most interactions taking place outside John’s view. As in many films in exotic locations, potentially, this will also boost the tourism of the country.
In the end, it is not the recounting of an original or interesting narrative that the experience seeks to achieve; it aims to instill a sense of positive outlook towards life within you. The imagery is attractive in all its forms; the lyrics are quite suggestive; there are many fun and sentimental tunes near the conclusion of the piece. However, too many of the emotional tones seem overly simplified and heavy handed. The central issue raised in this case is that most of the suicidal individuals do not really wish to commit suicide, rather they are bored or would love some assistance to help them deal with their issues. They want to feel that if they ever did feel like ending their lives, there is a point to it and that there are people who care and are willing to listen to them. For John, it is clear by the end that these sorts of physical boundaries at his home are not necessary, it is the emotional barrier he should put in place.
Find Me Falling has plenty of schmaltz, but it also has some overused beats and artificial conflicts, which will irritate many. On one hand, the movie delivers some interesting lessons regarding how it is crucial to allow others into one’s life and that self imposed walls are not good for anyone. On the other hand, the film could have had a much greater than what it eventually ended up with. Something much more profound which could have gotten people talking.
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