Review of A Long Way Down (2014) by Jesse O — 04 Nov 2014

Aaron Paul deserves better than this. Hell, the entire cast deserves better than this. One of the quotes from a professional review said that this film handles the theme of suicide with about the grace and delicacy of a Hallmark greeting card.

And I think that just about sums it up really. That's not to say that the film doesn't mean well, because it does, it's just that the way it looks at the despair and depression these people are going through in the simplest of ways possible.

I understand the reasoning behind it, but it doesn't accurately portray what it must be like to be suffering from this. This was meant to be a feel-good movie, so simplifying their despair, and keeping it from feeling too grim, was a must I suppose.

Don't want to depress your audience as well. Cable TV has done a number on films like this. You can see better character development, progression, and story arcs on TV. In some ways, film has become a limited medium of storytelling.

I'm not saying that you can't tell effective stories or have compelling characters in film, because that would be a lie. But shows like the Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Arrested Development, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Homeland, etc have proven that sometimes, when the writing is excellent, the stories can be just as satisfying, if not more so, than those you would see on film.

The problem cable TV faces is that your show can be cancelled if the ratings aren't good enough, leaving your story incomplete. This doesn't happen in films. A film can't be "cancelled" because the box office returns were disappointing.

The problem this film faces is that there's not enough time to truly get into it. This is a story that probably required more time to develop and gestate than was actually given. That's why I think the book is probably worlds better than this film.

This movie has a very limited amount of time to do everything it needs to do. Of course that means sacrificing certain things and just completely getting rid of others. The whole execution of the story is completely convoluted, almost cutesy in a way.

The way they all meet on top of the same building, how they become a media sensation, how the pact they undertake together gets broken. It all strains credulity. It's really hard to buy into anything this film does.

It's just not believable in its own universe. The film is also a tonal disaster. It goes from depressing character study to cutesy British comedy like nobody's business. There's some funny moments, but there's nothing here that will bring tears to your eyes.

..from both the comedy and the drama. Obviously, this film is really sentimental. That's a way to fool you into thinking that the characters were actually well-developed. The most interesting character would have to be Maureen and even then all you do is feel sorry for her, you pity her.

She's not a real character, she's a muppet. The cast, at the very least, is good. There's an easygoing chemistry between everybody that makes the film so much easier to watch. At least there's that.

The film does get a bit too cute for its own good, but that was to be expected. It's another way to convince you that you watched something that's better than it is. The thing is that this movie is not terrible, it's not particularly good, but there's no reason that this shouldn't have been better than it was.

The cast makes it watchable, but the script does them absolutely no favors.