A Long Way Down (2014)

Martin (Pierce Brosnan) was a successful television morning show host UNTIL he slept, inadvertently he claims, with an underage lass. Now, he's jobless, wifeless, kidsless and desperate. So, he climbs a well known London building on New Year's Eve to jump off. But, wait! Its a bit crowded up there! Also thinking of jumping is Maureen (Toni Collette) a single mother with a disabled son, Jess (Imogen Poot) a politician's daughter whose sister has gone missing, and J.J. (Aaron Paul) who says he has brain cancer. As they being chatting, they soon decide tonight is not the night. What they will do instead is make a "pact" to try to work out their problems until Valentine's Day. Then, if things are not better, its Geronimo. Jess seems the most troubled and is rushed to the hospital by the new "gang" as she has taken an overdose. Also, more secrets come tumbling out. Perhaps the only remedy needed is a friendship that binds them together? This lovely film, based on a book by Nick Hornsby, has humor, sorrow, sweetness, and insight in equal measures. The four principal characters are great and are supporting finely by Sam Neill, Rosamond Pike, and others. The London setting is interesting while a second setting in Tenerife is most lovely. Nice costumes are complimented by a great script and a surefooted direction. Are you "down" on life at this moment? Watch this heartwarming movie and then get up and make some new friends!

This film brought, once again, into relief the differences between American and British ways of telling stories on screen. I put my hand up to the generalisation and my bias.Spoiler In this film the characters have a scene in front of a TV day show. The event doesn't become pivotal which it often does in American movies which seem to make sacred anything with a big audience. I thought the acting was great. Toni Collette does an excellent job portraying a dowdy frightened mother. Sam Neil is also called on to underplay his poor parenting and does that well. Pierce Bronson presents a relatable, once again underplayed, humiliated celebrity, and doesn't hog the screen.Another movie cultural difference is that during the fight scene there doesn't need to be a speech or some sort of reconciliation, there's just mess. There was not a big deal made of 'why' the characters were seriously contemplating suicide. There were not problems to solve, which to me is another difference between American and British story telling. The characters unfolded themselves, flowering in subtle complexities. I loved that.

Had no idea what this film was when I decided to watch it on Netflix and was pleasantly surprised by how attached I became to the subject matter, the characters and the story. Brosnan is a disgraced TV personalty and decides to commit suicide by jumping off the top of a building on New Year's Eve. While up there, he meets 3 other people, played by Toni Collette, Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots, all there to do the same thing. None of them commit the act and instead form a weird bond between each other. A pact is made not to commit suicide until the next "popular" suicide date, which is Valentine's Day. Dark subject matter, I know. Despite the content of the film involving topics such as cancer, suicide, underage sex and other questionable character choices, the film balances this topics interestingly enough to keep it rather light. It never became too dark, nor too comedic. It walked a fine line of genuine trust in the characters. I found myself attached to each one, their faults, their quirks and liked them all. Imogen Poots has the hardest task of playing the "wild card" character. This character can sometimes become irritatingly annoying and I can see some people thinking her performance here is just that, but I found it oddly charming and real. She's a young girl who yearns to be loved and can't find it. She's lost, she feels alone and she turns to uncomfortable humour as a shield to hide her true feelings. I felt that her character had the most demons and she came off as the most interesting. The film is broken up into four segments and each segment is from one of the characters POV. At first I was afraid that it was going to be one of those films that played the same event multiple times from different character perspectives, but was relieved when that was not the case. The film fails to use the supporting cast effectively. Sam Neil is only in a few select scenes and Rosamund Pike is in one very uncomfortable one. Couldn't help but feel that their talents were slightly wasted here. I had no idea this film was based on a book, thus had nothing to hold it against. There seems to be a lot of hate towards it, but I was genuinely interested from start to finish.

although the movie isn't all that maximum in realistic aspects of storytelling, it is a very enjoyable movie and i honestly think that the rating it has received is a bit on the low side.the acting is good, the story is unusual which makes it a original movie by itself and it has characters to which you can relate to.If i may be very honest: I was thinking about suicide as well, sometimes whenever i was on a tall building looking down i soon wondered what it would be like if i just "fell down" this film however showed me that whatever the reason to depression is it can be solved and after watching this film i haven't had any suicidal thoughts.Give this film a chance, it might sound really grim and it is a bit of a shocking subject but it is really good and it deserves the attention.Pim