User reviews

When I started to watch Free Fall, I had no idea what I was in store for. The only reason I was mildly interested in it is because I noticed Hanno Koffler, whom I had seen in an earlier homosexual film I really enjoyed, Summer Storm. It is a film that sucks you in from the beginning, at first being all jumbled up and out of place leaving room to wonder, and then has a very steady progression.

The characters are genuine and believable. (I don't know what it is but foreign gay films are always much better than American ones.) There are very heartbreaking and heartwarming scenes, as well as just uncomfortable ones; it is a roller coaster of emotions. Another thing is there was also some intense and erotic scenes; the two leads have excellent chemistry together. Some cookie-cutter gay problems ensue, but overall the films stands it's own in knowing that it needs to be more than "just a gay film". I was really impressed with the subtle and wonderful deliverance of Kay Engel by Max Riemelt. He's a very beautiful man and some of his scenes are worth seeing just for the sheer acting value.

Very pleasing, a movie that has definitely stuck with me for all it gives. The runtime is necessary for all the material to sink in. Don't understand the comments that say it could have been shorter.

I want to say that Free Fall was an experience. In many ways is like a 40's melodrama. He, his wife and the other woman. What makes it feel different is that the other woman is a man. Hanno Koffler and Max Riemelt are superb as the forbidden sides of this triangle. Frank, compassionate, truthful and painful, very painful. The love and passion, fear and guilt in Hanno Koffler's eyes are haunting and recognizable. Max Riemelt's Kay makes the alternative in Koffler's Marc's life totally plausible and fills it with a form of suspense that the ending didn't completely clear out. So I'm so happy there will be a part 2. I can't wait.

Superbly shot, great dialogue, Overall, amazing cinema. Stephan Lacant – Genius.

The Film Stars Max Riemelt (Kay) as a young Police officer. A Stunningly Handsome character with a Striking Face. Cheeky, playful, lovable Kay. This is the kind of platonic (or otherwise) Best Buddy many men would like, regardless of sexuality. This film shows Riemelt with his best look yet.

After some initial brushes, Kay becomes friends with Marc (Hanno Koffler). A fellow Officer training at the academy. Marc a married man who is expecting a baby with his Wife Bettina (Katharina Schüttler). Eventually, Kay after a few flirty, maybe cheeky stunts, initially pushed aside as a "Joke" and a slight rebuff. Kay engages Marc in a an brief sexual encounter whilst out jogging.

It is hard to say more without giving the plot away. But it is not long before things progress.

Kay, whilst playing the passive character in this movie. He is the stronger of the two, who remains defiant and strong, the harder, better man. This, despite his loneliness, the rejection and aggression towards him. Meanwhile Marc struggles with his sexuality, feelings and family commitments. He deals with a separate set of emotional, anxious and eventual acceptances. Not forgetting bigotry that both men have to cope with.

The film portrays a very real scenario. Situations that many people have or may find them in. Whether this be due to suppression of feelings, peer or family pressure. Watch the film, consider those you know and love. Then think! about it, that is the kind of movie this is. Not Arty or overly intellectual but very, very well scripted.

All the actors play their roles well in this Movie. But it is obviously the two male leads that steal the limelight. Max's incredible looks and Handsome Hanno's rebuffs and reluctant start that turns into a happy, sexy swagger in his role.

Please do watch this film with an open mind. The Sexual scenes are very well shot and far from seedy. The performances are outstanding. This is acting at its best, real life, gritty. The chemistry between them is electric. The looks and body language is just as you would expect in real life.

I can't really put this into any one Genre of film. I cannot understand why it is in "Gay & Lesbian" sections either. This is a film that can be watched by all adults of any sexuality, intellectual level or background. But in order to enjoy and understand it, you might need a certain amount of understanding and acceptance.

This is a movie that had my emotions up-down and all over, hairs raised, a kick in the guts, mixed thoughts. The works. I watched a couple of scenes to listen to the true spoken German Grammar. As one or two of the subtitles were amiss.

I found this to be one of the best films I have ever watched. Whether or not you are happy with the ending is another matter.

In Words: Powerful - Stunning – Captivating – Thrilling – Sadness – Happiness – Gritty – Enamour – Drawing – Sensual & Emotional.

I would say there could never be Freier Fall II, too tacky. But the actors could command a fortune for "Kollision Wege".........or you choose a title?.

A credit to all the cast and Crew – Thank You.

ENJOY!

This film is very, very erotic and just as exotic in the way the story is presented. From a film point of view it is unique in that the film's construction is very new, so new in fact that you marvel at just how seamlessly it is all put together. The cast is uniformly superb, with the three lead actors truly shining in a very believable way. The story itself is quite passé especially in view of the progress made with gay rights in Europe and Germany in particular. But the two male leads are so hot who cares? And the third supporting actor, an absolutely stunning woman, is a perfect foil for the two men who are bouncing off the walls for each other. As a film buff myself and also as an individual who has seen virtually every good film made with a gay plot, I can say this film stands at the very top, the highest peak, in just how beautifully the story is told. A couple of the reviews here were nasty because they feel the story here is as old as the hills and to some degree that is true, but the human heart in its varied dimensions is always new in terms of where it goes and how people react to where they are taken.

Although one is initially alerted to the possible use of the police academy setting to metaphorically delineate some of the dynamics present in a society's norms as part of its imposed conditioning (the training academy especially implying a sense of regimentation), this very well-made film actually registers most of its concerns in a low-key manner, allowing some indirection to come through the proceedings by giving enough space for subtler impressions and meaning.

Apparently, many viewers want to characterize the film's subject in terms of a conflicted choice between heterosexuality and homosexuality, which makes about as much sense as merely portraying its content as the treatment of a love triangle; it reveals a rather limited level of engagement and even suggests that such issues are far from politically resolved in their minds. But while the storyline could be read on the surface for perplexing issues around self-identity, sexual or otherwise, it is ultimately about someone who gradually allows himself the freedom to experience not only different ways of loving others, but also the vital ways in which life actually unfolds in a broader sense, beyond the difficulties of imposed human limitations.

The courage of Lacant's film lies in its delineation of what life is like when one truly begins to negotiate one's freedom by opening up fully to the presence of ambiguity and not knowing - entering into the "free fall" of the title - and going beyond limited distinctions, to find and live out what is actually true from moment to moment. A Taoist expression comes to mind as one follows Marc's trajectory into his own realm of truth: the more free you are, the more unpredictable you become.

Which asks us all: can you live out your truth in this most uncompromising way? Or, can you live with someone who is? What does freedom look like in a world full of all the shoulds and musts which we and others continually wish to impose upon ourselves? Marc begins to show us as he learns to submit to his own free-fall - which is no less than remaining open and vulnerable to whatever is transpiring.

The performances are excellent throughout, although working from a carefully written script which tends to deliberately tailor the depth of all the other characters beside Marc. Thus, while in the end Kai shows up as little more than a catalyst for Marc's awakening and perhaps generating our wish for a bit more character development, it is really Marc's story after all, and we are meant to inhabit the film's shades of meaning by traveling through his experiences from his vantage point.

It could be said that in a society no longer concerned with an immature sense of morality or inadequate ethics, Marc would both be able to bear a child with a woman as well as express the love he might feel for another man, if he is so inclined. But Marc, like the rest of us, is born in time, and therefore occupies a certain karmic status, posited by the complexity of circumstances… and the way to the truth is largely through one's karma.

Although we humans are still somewhat tribal and limited beings, whose sense of freedom is defined and grounded in our very limitations, the film nonetheless demonstrates in its closing statement that we can only live meaningfully by choosing from our own freedom - and thus encountering the possibility of a real and lived life, beyond all expectations - if we assume the courage to do so… a courage exemplified by director Lacant in this direct and honest film.

First, I have to say what the two main characters do not only to them but also to loved ones around them that makes me feel uncomfortable. Agree that the direction of the film is about Marc, a father-to-be, realizing the problem with his sexual orientation which leads to him starting cheating and hiding it from Bettina, Marc's wife. After a period of secrecy, the development in the relationship between Marc and Kay increased along with Bettina's suspicions. In the end, everything fell apart and Marc's family fell apart, and Kay had to change jobs due to his identity being revealed. It's a pretty sad ending, but that doesn't mean it made me cry. For first thing, Marc and Kay actually had an cheating. I don't think it's understandable for two gay people to have this cheating. Don't say I'm a homophobic, what I want to say is that CHEATING IS CHEATING, regardless of sexual orientation, CHEATING is unacceptable. But looking back, maybe the writer really wanted the viewer to feel this and condemn it. The second thing that bothers me is that the time of this kind of thing happens was when Marc was about to have a baby. OK, maybe because the wife was pregnant, she didn't really "meet" her husband, but with me preparing to be a father, I don't think Marc really has such an easy relationship with Kay. Maybe just a few times I can understand, but here the time it happened is very long, where is his responsibility as a father? Then, after Marc's child was born, he rethought about his relationship with Kay, he went to Kay's house in night and wanted to end this relationship, but after just one sentence: "What about me? I fell in love with you!!" and a hug, Marc completely broke down and accepted to continue it?? Is it possible that Marc's wife doesn't love Marc, why does he let everything go so easily?? I mean, she gave him everything, she tried to make everything normalized again. But Marc seem is not really care about it. I really can't understand that. In the end what took my tears away was the scene where Bettina angrily yelled at her husband. "I can't even be jealous of him!" , a line that really conveys the anger, helplessness, and pain of a woman who loves her husband wholeheartedly. And Marc was realize what he did, so they just give freedom for another. Unlike movies with very high ratings like Brokeback Mountain, CMBYN, ... when the woman is brought out as the background for the story, not really fighting for her rights, even after she fight for what she think it was right, her husband thread her that he could beat her up :))). Fairly, Bettina was created as a character that influenced the film's plot, a character empowered to fight for what she wasn't supposed to get, for what she was deserved. I highly appriciated this part of the script. In the end, the movie really does convey some messages and lessons for myself, so I give it a 7/10.

I remember a time when pretty much every film with gay subject matter was about a self-hating homosexual. That apparently was the only way to be gay until about the early 80s (or so we were told), so I'm not sure what this monotonous bag of retro-clichés is supposed to contribute in 2013. I found it impossible to have much sympathy or interest in a lead character, who in a major city of a liberal Western country remains unaware or at the very least deluded about his sexuality, until one day some same-sex hottie walks into his life and he has to acknowledge, although with a lot of tortured macho bluster, that he likes cock after all.

The characters never develop much beyond the most basic: closeted, hand wringing gay dude, his non- closeted object of desire (he smokes grass, he's so free spirited!) and the suspicious wife who is so one-note, it made me feel sorry for the actress who had to play her.

It is the type of gay narrative straight film-makers seem attracted to. Maybe that is because they have little awareness of how tired this subject matter is and they can just about imagine themselves in the predicament: What if one day I woke up and realised I was attracted to men, a little bit like Gregor Samsa wakes up one day in Kafka's Metamorphosis and realises he is a large beetle. It's with the same sort of detachment from any sort of psychological development that homosexuality is dealt with here. It doesn't help that the film-makers are clueless as to how gay sex works in the unrealistic "look ma, no lube" butt sex and limp dicked fondling depicted.

It's not that I don't believe that this narrative doesn't still occasionally play out in liberal Western countries, but what relevance does it have for gay or straight audiences and what are we to take way from it ? I'd advice the film-makers to take a look at Andrew Haigh's Weekend or Stranger by the Lake by Alain Guiraudie to see where gay cinema is at in the 21st century, because this feels like a film that would have have been considered relevant in 1975 and even then Germany had the unapologetic gay characters of Fassbinder's films.

This gets one extra star for the cinematography, which I thought was beautiful. Otherwise don't bother.

I'm a more of a critical person when it comes to watching films, especially German films. Let's point out, that I don't watch American films! At first I thought it can give me some pleasant surprises and it did! After watching Harvest, I soon realised that the German film industry is really recovering. That's really nice! In this film we saw a DECENT storyline, with remarkable talented actors and what I favour in a film is that it was played very authentically. I don't usually give 10 out of 10, but this film WELL WORTH IT! I recommend for everyone! It wasn't another low quality, obscene, cliché film. It's one of the films you think about the other day too! Well done, for the artists, producers!

I just saw this film and I thought it was a beautiful film. It is a fresh breath of air especially in USA where there are not too many good indie films being released. Seems like Hollywood just want to make 100 million dollar films with no heart. Of course, "Free Fall" had a heart in this film and it touches you inside. The cinematography was exceptional and truly captured the emotional state of the characters as well as the flow of the film. The director was able to get excellent performances from the actors which were very talented and put their heart into each character. It was a very well cast film. The two men in love were so real. They were masculine men just dealing with their emotions and trying to find who they were. Marc (Hanno Koffler) was a very believable character who was torn between his girlfriend, new baby and his true feelings for another man. Yes any parents would react this way when they have to deal with the sexuality of their son with a family. I liked that the director did not go too much into the life story of the lover Kay (Max Riemelt- look out for this guy) as it left me thinking about him and enjoying the friendship and bond between two men. It can happen to many men and it happens all the time.

This film is beyond words beautiful. The rawness and connection between these two actors and their characters is beyond beautiful. I must admit I've watched this movie over six times and I fall in love with it each and every time there is not one part I don't like. It's a real drama and part of me wishes that Kay would have been apart of Marc's life forever ...but it tore me apart and yes I cried

Most films now a days lack originality and they lack some real connection between characters. You could see the relationship between Marc and his girlfriend but you could also see the social norms and expectations for how you were supposed to love in this film. Kay was not the social expectation , but you knew that deep down inside Marc loved Kay, the difference was that Kay didn't let people control him and control his life. However Marc was controlled by people around him which made it difficult to accept the fact of his feelings for this man. Its so real and raw which makes it beautiful . like even when he was trying to rationalize he wasn't gay, that had nothing to do with it, you really can't help who you fall in love with.

Every time they're running (which is a lot in this movie) Hanno Koffler's hands are just flopping all over the place. Get it together man. Turn em into fists or something don't just leave em loose like that. Anyway great movie.

A really good movie about a guy (Marc) who falls in love with a fellow cop (Kay)only Marc's not gay and he has a girlfriend, a pregnant one. Marc and Kay meet at the police academy and Kay end up following Marc to his precinct. At first they start jogging together but soon they start spending more and more time together and falling in love in the process. Really sweet at times and frustrating at others. Really the only thing I didn't like about this movie was the ending as I thought it felt rather incomplete.

Seriously this is a great movie (I'm not just saying that because i'm a major badge bunny) A Lovely Love story that will break your heart.

This film is not a cliché. No movie gave me hope and took it right away leaving just expectations behind like this one did.

Once the love between two beautifully interpreted characters begins, one is immersed in the struggle they're into because of their feelings. Max Riemelt completely nailed it, his character (Kay) seems to have found the true Marc(Hanno Koffler)by giving himself to him. I can agree that this is "the German answer to Brokeback Mountain" but it lacks at exposing the whole life of the characters, you just can imagine where they come from and how did they get to where they are.

Between other things, the sound was impeccable, it makes you feel very closely to the moment and the feelings surrounding a scene. The costume design was a little bit stiff but you can easily see that the characters are going trough a routine and they are completely changed when they are not in regular situations. Also, the locations were beautiful without being very detailed.

It is focused on the fight generated by love and the consequences of the choices you make while you are trying to define yourself.