The Fall

The all too brief images of a very limited number of Budapest locales and the few actual Hungarian actors, plus the excellent Jurgen Prochnow are not enough to save this insipid, convoluted mess. The 3 other leads deliver performances akin to cardboard cut-outs, although it may well be the very poorly written script's lack of coherence that's to blame. If it's Budapest you're interested in, you'll do better watching a travelogue. There are many other very fine foreign films that deserve a viewing, give one of those a chance and pass on this one.

This film was way above average, and is - in my opinion - greatly underestimated. The opening sequence is exciting and gripping, and the story moves at a fast pace as the plot twists and turns towards an intriguing finish. Most of the performances were very good. Helene de Fourgerolles is new to me, but she was excellent, and it was impossible to tell whether she or the ever-reliable Jurgen Prochnow were telling the truth. My only quibble was that Craig Sheffer never convinced, neither his fear of nor his his fascination for the lovely Marta came across properly, and this was a pity. Try and see it, the rest of the cast more than make up for him.

About the only thing I learned from this film is that Budapest is now the new Paris where one goes to find his creative muse. At least that's what Craig Sheffer is there for according to him. But as far as I'm concerned I didn't get to see enough of Budapest to make it worthwhile even as a travelogue.

But happily living and kanoodling with Kim Huffman has enough diversions and apparently he's living off her. But then the sexy Helene DeFougerolles breaks into his place after escaping a couple of men after her. After that Sheffer starts thinking with his male member.

A cursed and muddled plot characterizes The Fall and no one walks away from this with their artistic reputations intact.

First off, I write off any film that uses a cat jumping on someone to startle the audience. Budapest makes a beautiful location and it's too bad Frost and Piddington don't make more of it as was done, for example, with Cannes in _Ronin_. The start of the film is very exciting, especially when the heroine runs into a car but deteriorates rapidly from there into cliché upon cliché (including the jumping cat - just out of curiosity, has anybody seen a cat ever do that to a person, and from where are they supposed to jump?). Perhaps it is the proliferation of clichés but the film cannot sustain the level of suspense shown in the beginning. And if you cannot figure the "surprise" prior to its unveiling I've got some swampland to show you in Florida.

In Budapest, the aspirant writer Adam Ellis (Craig Sheffer) from New York lives with the also American Lisa Warrington (Kim Huffman) in an apartment that belongs to her chief József Kovács (Jürgen Prochnow) that Lisa worships. Kovács is a former communist and presently an entrepreneur hated by his compatriots. One day, a blonde (Hélène de Fougerolles ) is chased by two men in the subway and then on the streets; however she cuts the throat of one of them with a straight razor in a corridor in a building. Then she breaks in Adam's apartment to flee from the other man. She tries to seduce Adam and then she tells a strange story about her husband, her little daughter and Kovacs. Adam decides to help her but is the woman telling the truth?

"The Fall" is an awful and worthless low-budget thriller, with an absurd, incoherent and unbelievable story and ridiculous plot point. The behavior of the dumb Adam in a foreign country is unconvincing and I doubt that someone could be as stupid as his character is. The sex scene is absolutely unnecessary and senseless and does not add any value to the story. The final twist is ridiculous. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Ilusão Fatal" ("Fatal Illusion")