The Falling

Always best on IMDb to ignore the entire crop of 5 starred reviews. They are either deliberate plants to puff the film or starry eyed peeps of little discrimination. I really wanted to like this film. More than decent cast; great location; credible period (late 60's) After 20 minutes I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Several people in the audience just got up and left. Can't quite put my finger on it. It kept hinting as social 'issues' but nobody actually verbalised them. Lots of serious thesps giving deep and meaningful looks, but never saying anything. And why do directors think everyone in the 60s chain- smoked....at assemblies! They didn't!

In all truth I came by this film due to the fact that I was actually a boarder at the school where this was filmed! Spent 5 years there (MANY moons ago), and ultimately the school closed, so me and a ton of other former-pupils were doing the rounds to watch the movie and see our old school!

I then noticed that Maisie Williams and Florence Pugh were in it, so had SOME degree of expectation.

As an ex-Director myself, I can whole-heartedly say that this was the worst directing I have ever seen. Period! The shot selection and scene setting (of which there was almost none) was frankly dreadful and in truth - amateurish.

The story itself lacked ANY sense of position, location, scene setting, plot - I could go on...

It is totally beyond me what the BFI were thinking when they agreed to fund this piece of simply utter rubbish.

When a charismatic classmate dies, her school-friends start to suffer from a mysterious mass fainting fit. Is it supernatural, grief or just a cry for attention? The headmistress (well-played by Greta Saatchi) just wishes it would all go away. It's a nice concept, but the film seems too obviously sympathetic to the girls, without really letting us inside their heads. Oddly, they don't seem to be so freaked out by their condition. Also, the soundtrack is absurdly intrusive, and deflates rather than enhances the natural atmosphere. And there's just a little too much in the way of extraneous plot - budding sexuality, a troubled mother - daughter relationship - to truly build the sense of claustrophobia which would be needed to make the film a success. Overall, it's just a little bit blander than one might have hoped.

Maisie Williams is a good actress but the film is slow moving and almost nothing really happens other than closed minded people not wanting to talk about the realities of life.

That being said, there is an actually problem and it's not with the film itself but rather with those that have watched it and how clueless the conclusions seem to be.

1. The reason Lydia is acting the way she is is obvious. Because her semi lesbian relationship was in the process of disintegration when the other girl died after cheating on her. She doesn't know how to deal with it so she begins acting out. She is, after all, only a child.

2. The fainting spells are also rather obvious. They are real for some of the girls and not for others. They have been picking at the wall in one of the rooms. Obviously there must be mold or something in the crack. It could also be lead poisoning given the time period. And then they are sticking their fingers into each others mouths or their own. It's quite obvious that some of them have ingested something that will harm them.

3. Not all of them die, so there is another issue. Abigail was pregnant. There is a blood toxicity that can happen while pregnant. When I was little my best friends mum was confined to bed for months while she was pregnant because this almost killed her. She ended up in the hospital for almost a month. This, combined with what might be in that wall, is likely the cause of Abigails death. Given that technology wasn't nearly as sophisticated at the time this movie takes place, they may not have known what caused it.

The movie may be boring but thinking through the answers shouldn't be so difficult.

Set in the 1960s at an all girl school we meet Lydia (Masie Williams) who has a best friend in Abbie. They have it all as friends and a love of nature centring around an old oak tree. They have a mixed bag of teachers who seem to adhere to Victorian values and modesty principles – that is despite the burgeoning 'summer of love'.

Then tragedy happens and Masie starts to have fainting fits – very soon the phenomenon spreads and she seems to be at the centre of it. Throw in a mum with issues (Maxine Peake) and a bit of the Occult, forbidden sex and deep rooted paranoia and you have the makings of a rather good story.

Maxine Peake is billed starring here, but she is not really on screen for a great period of time; Greta Scacchi as the dowdy Miss Mantel is though pure excellence in a performance dripping with understatement. I have seen comparisons to 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' and even the events around Salem and the subsequent Witch trials. However, I think such comparisons may lead to expectations that may not be met. It is though a film that had a great idea and I think it could have been taken much further as it sort of peters out; despite that it is still on I can recommend.