''Falling'' is a 2020

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written and directed by

Viggo Mortensen Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. R (; born October 20, 1958) is an American actor, writer, director, producer, musician, and multimedia artist. Born and raised in the State of New York to a Danish father and American mother, he also lived in Argentin ...

in his feature directorial debut.Tom Grater
"Viggo Mortensen talks directing debut 'Falling'; first look at family drama"
''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'', May 15, 2019. The film stars Mortensen as John Peterson, a middle-aged gay man whose homophobic father Willis (

Lance Henriksen Lance Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor. He is known for his works in various science fiction, action and horror films, such as that of Bishop in the ''Alien'' film franchise, and Frank Black in Fox television series ''Millennium ...

) starts to exhibit symptoms of

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

, forcing him to sell the family farm and move to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to live with John and his husband Eric (

Terry Chen Terry Chen (born February 3, 1975) is a Canadian film and television actor. Early life Chen was born in Edmonton, Alberta, to Taiwanese and Chinese parents originating from Taiwan (father) and mainland China (mother). After primary and secondary ...

).Robert Daniels
"‘Falling’: Viggo Mortensen’s Directorial Debut Is An Exhausting Mess (Sundance Review)"
''The Playlist'', February 1, 2020. The film's cast also includes

Sverrir Gudnason Sverrir Gudnason (born 12 September 1978; in Icelandic: ''Sverrir Páll Guðnason'') is a Swedish actor of Icelandic origin. Gudnason was born in Lund, Sweden, and raised in Reykjavík, Iceland. He moved with his family to Tyresö, Sweden, in ...

Laura Linney Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress. Having studied acting at Juilliard School (1986-1990), she became known for her complex and multilayered performances on stage and screen. She has received various accolades, ...

Hannah Gross Hannah Gross (born ) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Debbie Mitford in the Netflix drama '' Mindhunter''. Early life Gross grew up in Toronto. She is the daughter of actors Martha Burns and Paul Gross. She attended New ...

and

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation ...

. It premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

on January 31, 2020. Modern Films released it in the United Kingdom on December 4, 2020.

Quiver Distribution Quiver Distribution is an American-Canadian film production and film distribution company founded in 2019 by Berry Meyerowitz and Jeff Sackman. The company is best known for releasing films '' The Fanatic'', ''Running with the Devil ''Running wit ...

and

Mongrel Media Mongrel Media is an independent Canadian film distributor established in 1994 by Hussain Amarshi. It is the exclusive Canadian theatrical distributor for Sony Pictures Classics, Neon, and Lionsgate and titles from A24, Amazon Studios, Saban Film ...

released it in the United States and Canada on February 5, 2021.

Premise

John lives with his husband Eric in California, far from the traditional rural life he left behind years ago. His father, Willis, a headstrong man from a bygone era, lives alone on the isolated farm where John grew up. Willis's mind is declining, so John brings him west, hoping he and his sister, Sarah, can help their father find a home closer to them. Their best intentions ultimately run up against Willis's angry refusal to change his way of life in any way.

Cast

as Willis (75 years) *

as John *

as Eric *

as Willis (23–43 years) *

as Gwen *

as Sarah Canadian actor-directors

and

Paul Gross Paul Michael Gross OC (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian actor, director, writer, producer, and musician born in Calgary, Alberta. Gross is known for his lead role as Constable Benton Fraser in the popular Canadian television series ''Due So ...

have cameos as Willis' proctologists.

Production

In October 2018, it was announced

would star in the film, alongside

, and directing from a screenplay he wrote. Mortensen and Daniel Bekerman will serve as producers on the film under their Scythia Films banner. In March 2019,

and

joined the cast of the film. Mortensen had not originally intended to play the lead role in the film himself, but found that since there were virtually no other major stars in the cast, committing to act in the film was the only way he was able to secure production funding. Though not an autobiographical piece, Mortensen was influenced by feelings from his upbringing. One of the first scenes of the movie where Mortensen's character shoots a duck as a young boy and decides to keep the dead bird as a pet actually happened to him as a child.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in March 2019. Filming took place in Los Angeles and Northern Ontario.

Release

It premiered at the

on January 31, 2020. It screened at the

2020 Toronto International Film Festival The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, the 45th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 10 to 21, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival took place primarily on an online stream ...

in September. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 4, 2020, by Modern Films. In December 2020,

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film and set it for a February 5, 2021, release. It was released in Canada on February 5, 2021.

Reception

The film has a rating of on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on reviews and an average of . The website's critics consensus reads: "As messy and complex as the relationship at its center, ''Falling''s repetitive nature can be taxing, but its heart is clearly in the right place."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

reports a score of 66 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It won the 2020

Sebastiane Award Sebastiane Award is a prize delivered in September, since 2000, to a film or documentary screened during the San Sebastián International Film Festival that best reflects the values and reality of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people. ...

and the award for Outstanding Achievement in Picture Editing from the

Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assistant ...

, and received five

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

nominations at the

9th Canadian Screen Awards The 9th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held in the week of May 17 to 20, 2021, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2020.Barry Hertz, "How one Canadian arts institution is rebuilding amid the p ...

in 2021, for

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

(Henriksen), Best Art Direction or Production Design ( Carol Spier), Best Costume Design (Anne Dixon), Best Editing ( Ronald Sanders) and Best Casting ( Deirdre Bowen).Brent Furdyk
"Canadian Screen Awards Announces 2021 Film Nominations"
''

ET Canada ''ET Canada'' (previously referred to as ''Entertainment Tonight Canada'') is a Canadian entertainment news television series, using the same format as the American entertainment newsmagazine ''Entertainment Tonight''. ''ET Canada'' is a broadcas ...

'', March 30, 2021.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 9143112 2020 films 2020 drama films 2020 directorial debut films 2020 LGBT-related films 2020s English-language films American drama films American LGBT-related films British drama films British LGBT-related films Canadian drama films Canadian LGBT-related films English-language Canadian films Films about father–son relationships Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in Ontario Gay-related films LGBT-related drama films Same-sex marriage in film 2020s Canadian films 2020s American films 2020s British films