Fall movie review: Second-rate thriller does what it needs to

With a minimalist plot and a simple premise, this vertiginous movie does exactly what it needs to – and nothing more.

Fall is in cinemas now. Picture: Roadshow

You know what nursery rhyme you shouldn’t sing as a distraction from your terrifying, sky-high ordeal?

“Ring Around a Rosie”, which ends with the ominous line “they all fall down”. That’s the last thing you want passing through your lips when you’re 600 metres above the ground with no way down.

Well, no way down that doesn’t result in your guaranteed death.

The perverse irony of “Ring Around a Rosie” isn’t lost on the characters in Fall, an adequately taut and contained movie that puts an end to the question of “Do adrenaline junkies have more fun?” – yes, until they really, really don’t.

Directed by Scott Mann, a filmmaker of second-rate thrillers, Fall is an exercise in wringing as much as you can from a simple premise – two women are stuck atop an abandoned TV tower 600 metres up and in the middle of nowhere.

Daredevilling doesn’t always pay off. Picture: Roadshow

Mann and his crew go for every plot trick to stretch out the story and dial up the suspense – the spectre of vultures, dicey attempts at trying to be rescued and emotional reckonings.

There’s not much more they could’ve done other than maybe call it 25 minutes earlier – because this is a thriller that was always hampered by the limitations of a sub-genre where innovation and freshness died long ago.

What Fall does differently to the usual “two women stuck at sea while sharks circle” is changing the location to the skies. Vultures are no fun either and everyone still gets sunburnt.

Experienced climbers, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) decide to scale a TV tower in the desert.

Becky is a reluctant participant after the death of her husband while mounting climbing a year earlier. Hunter thinks the climb will shake Becky out of her grief and also provide great content for her social media channels.

Given the bad omens on the way there – a truck nearly killing them, vultures picking at the corpse of a barely still alive coyote – the daredevil stunt was maybe not the best idea.

Fall dials up the suspense. Picture: Roadshow

They finally make it to the top just in time for the rusty ladder to collapse and plummet to the ground. What now? There’s no phone signal and all they have is a short piece of rope.

In between trying to MacGyver their way out of the precarious situation is a series of emotional confrontations between the former best friends. There are secrets and disappointments between them, and Fall does just enough character work here for you to be invested in their fates.

That’s pretty much the case for Mann’s direction, Miguel Olaso’s cinematography, Currey and Gardner’s performances, and the movie as a whole – it does just enough.

The camera work sweeps in a few vertiginous shots – but it’s nothing compared to that phenomenal opening sequence in James Gray’s Ad Astra – while its minimalist and unpretentious plot makes for a diverting if inconsequential couple of hours.

Of course, you were never more expecting more than that.

Rating: 3/5

Fall is in cinemas now