directed by:
Alex Kruz written by: Alex Kruz genre: Sci-Fi |
Ultimately, we're all looking for some way to be memorable. I don't think I can recall watching a film before - where its main characters were defined by the kind of food they choose to eat, but here we are, and that's the case when it comes to "Fallen: The Search Of A Broken Angel." Sam is "an overly spiritual vegetarian womanizer," and Kristina is "an overly practical meat-loving artist." I'm probably overly curious as to how these become the most crucial things we need to know about a film's characters, and I definitely recognize that's probably not as enticing to most as it would be to me. All I know is that when it comes to these attributes & personal taste, I'm absolutely 100% team Kristina.
Writer/director Alex Kruz has definitely got some unique ideas, no doubt about that. It doesn't take long at all before you realize that "Fallen: The Search Of A Broken Angel" certainly ain't gonna be like the majority of films you probably watch. "Sam The Man" is interesting right off the drop, offering a deal of "sex or chess" for anyone passing by. I mean, who could simply pass that up? Why it's gotta be one or the other is a bit beyond me… isn't the ideal day spent doing both? After meeting a couple of ladies at the start of this movie, it's pretty clear that Sam's taste in women is anyone with two legs & a heartbeat. While it'll be difficult for many of us watching to relate to a guy like Sam (played by Christalo Castro), acting-wise, he comes off reasonably natural - amongst a cast of characters that seem a bit more rigid & stiff. I suppose that's the slickness a "womanizer" is supposed to come along with, though, right? From having to go to the bathroom to missing periods…no lie, y'all, there is some extremely awkward dialogue to be found in this film, which often has the characters straddling the line between doing the best they can with the material they've got and doing the best they can with their own limitations. You get the sense that "Fallen: The Search Of A Broken Angel" is ultimately trying to explore similar terrain that we've seen in movies like "The Fountain" or "I Origins," but it's much tougher to figure out if this film wants to be taken as seriously as those did - as you find your way into it. By the time you're about twenty-five minutes into "Fallen: The Search Of A Broken Angel," you'll very much feel like you've been searching for the cohesive threads that will tie this all together, or at the very least, a five-minute stretch that seems like it belongs together. It seems to walk this strange line that every so often will try to incorporate an impression of what hip language might be, be drifts wide of the mark when it comes to the fluidity that would require. Castro remains the highlight, but scene for scene, Kruz seems to be struggling to find a pace that will make this script he's written a little less awkward than it is coming out on a visual level. Take the scene with the psychic, for example – not only is it bizarre to begin with, but you have to ask yourself what the real purpose was behind the way that moment ended. There are a few important plot devices that are added in through that scene overall, but the ending to it is fairly inexplicable. Not every scene we're ever gonna see in every film or movie will always serve a purpose, but it's a fairly crucial thing to keep an eye on as a writer/director - you want each scene to possess a reason to be there, but there are many puzzling moments in this movie that seem like they come right outta left field.
To Kruz's credit, I like the way that he films things and frames his shots – he's got an eye for how to get things across onscreen, and that's definitely a main strength. Even though he wrote it, I feel like he's going through the same issues that the cast are – he's doing the best with the material that he can, and it's just really not all that easy to work with. A couple of audio issues with volumes peaking over the main threshold affect scenes like the ones we see at the very start of the film - or Sam's journey to Arizona later on…nothing too detrimental, but at the same time, they'd be moments Kruz would have to be aware of and easy to fix, which makes it a bit perplexing that it wouldn't have been when so much else has gone right in the editing by comparison. Much of the scenery we see is stunning; I'll give this movie that – Kruz has done an exceptional job scouting out excellent locations to use overall. Two-thirds of the way into this film, it feels like we've spent way more time with aliens in dream sequences than we have with Kristina, who we're led to believe is a much more important part of this film from its write-up, and we're nearly begging Kruz to reveal how he's going to tie everything we see together somehow. The final scene is perhaps the most effective you'll find in the whole movie, and I felt like it took a long time to get there on a long & winding road that didn't seem to make sure we understood where we were going. I felt like I knew where we'd end up, but yeah…what a bizarre route we took to get there… I'm going to go with two & a half stars out of five this time around. Even as "Fallen: The Search Of A Broken Angel" dives headlong into psychedelic psychology towards the end - in an attempt to explain things or help them add up, it never feels like we quite get there. As always, maybe that's just me and my perspective, but that's all I've got to give you. "Fallen: The Search Of A Broken Angel" is strange to the point where you'll wonder how it made sense to Kruz, but it'll probably keep you along for the ride all the same in hopes that by the end, you'll discover the meaning behind this film, or even life itself. |