''Falling'' is a 2020

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Viggo Mortensen Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. (; born October 20, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received nominations for three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. Mortensen made his film debut with a small role in ...

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 which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'', 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 roles in various science fiction, action and horror genre productions, including Bishop in the ''Alien'' film franchise and Frank Black in the Fox television series ...

) starts to exhibit symptoms of

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

, forcing him to sell the family farm and move to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to live with John and his husband Eric (

Terry Chen Terence Chen (born February 3, 1975) is a Canadian actor. Early life Chen was born on February 3, 1975, in Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the ...

).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 Sverre, Sverrir or Sverri is a Nordic name from the Old Norse ''Sverrir'', meaning "wild, swinging, spinning". It is a common name in Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands; it is less common in Denmark and Sweden. It can also be a surname. Sverre ma ...

Laura Linney Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several awards, including two Golden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards and five Tony Awards. ...

, Hannah Gross and

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...

. It premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

on January 31, 2020. Modern Films released it in the United Kingdom on December 4, 2020. Quiver Distribution and Mongrel Media 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 stubborn refusal to change his way of life in any way.

Cast

as Willis Peterson ** Sverrir Guðnason as Young Willis Peterson *

as John Peterson *

as Eric Peterson * Hannah Gross as Gwen Peterson *

as Sarah Peterson Canadian actor-director

and Henry Mortensen have cameos as Willis' proctologist and the local deputy respectively.

Production

In October 2018, it was announced

would star in the film, alongside

, Sverrir Guðnason, 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,

, Hannah Gross 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 the ...

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, Quiver Distribution 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 aggregator, 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 ...

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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

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

, and received five

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards () 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) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

nominations at the

9th Canadian Screen Awards The 9th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 17–20 May 2021 to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2020. The presentations were held as a seri ...

in 2021, for Best Actor (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 ''Entertainment Tonight Canada'' (commonly shortened to ''ET Canada'') is a Canadian entertainment news television series that aired on the Global Television Network from 2005 to 2023. Its branding and format were based on the American entertainm ...

'', March 30, 2021.

References

External links

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