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One of the London Film Festival's handful of world premieres, The Falling had naturally generated buzz as it's a film funded by the BFI, which is quite unusual for them. Unfortunately, while it has its merits, it doesn't quite live up to expectation as a whole. That said, the limited budget is impressively spread out with a solid cast including Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams and convincing 1960s production and costume design. The creativity of director/writer Carol Morley is less striking. It's a film interested in starting a lot of tangents without finishing them, or instead giving us underwhelming payoffs. It's built on the backbone of an odd mystery, one it's uninterested in resolving, but interested in escalating.

Set in a 1969 girls school, when the promiscuous student Abbie, played by Florence Pugh, accidentally gets pregnant, she begins to suffer from fits of fainting seemingly at random. Her best friend Lydia, played by Williams, deals with the consequences after the epidemic spreads across the school with girls fainting out of control. The film appears to be a story about the friendship between Lydia and Abbie, but it fractures off into different directions, some more engaging than others. Most dramatically is exploration into Lydia's past, or rather, how she came into this world. Her relationship with her agoraphobic mother, played by Maxine Peake, is a key aspect of the film and one of the few things that eventually pay off in a satisfying way, if a disturbing one. It needed some more development beforehand to feel fully fleshed out, but the delivery of it in the third act is the film's greatest strength.

While kept deliberately ambiguous, it appears that the fainting is somewhat of a punishment for early sexual behaviour (which incidentally appears to mostly be instigated by Lydia's brother, played by Joe Cole). There's no charm in its apparent disdain and shaming for the young girls' urges and it doesn't feel like a thought thoroughly argued through enough. It's most interesting for the way the authority figures react, which is in complete denial that anything is wrong, even when Lydia is on her knees in the hallway. Even so, characters don't react the way people would react to others fainting, though perhaps it's supposed to hint about how it's become so tiresome. It contributes to the uneasy atmosphere of the film with its dreamlike eeriness.

It is quite rewarding to see Maisie Williams in this type of environment for a change. It's clear that she's making the most of it and trying her best to feel natural, but she doesn't quite have the conviction to make it work just yet. In time she'll be a great actress. It just feels as though Morley has misjudged what the film was trying to do for the most part, thematically and tonally. It does have some good aspects and interesting tidbits, existentialism that's valid if unremarkable, but as a whole it brings nothing new stylistically to the table and is often too uninspired in execution. It has a bizarre sense of humour that doesn't quite gel with its thoughtfulness and mystery. Solid production for the budget, interesting and engaging moments here and there, but The Falling is misguided from the script's initial intentions direction.

6/10

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THE FALLING is a film detailing an outbreak of fainting at an all-girl school in 1969. Such events are well-documented in real life and often have the authorities and various specialists puzzled, although it's widely acknowledged that they're psychosomatic in nature. So there's potential here for an interesting storyline.

Unfortunately, the storyline of THE FALLING is all over the place. For the first half hour it's a typical tale of teenage angst and friendship. Things take a darker turn with the introduction of incestuous sub-plots and the like, but then they become ridiculous with the well-choreographed fainting spells. Subliminal imagery abounds, alongside some hinted-at supernatural aspects, but it all adds up to far less than the sum of its components. What's the message here, anyway? What's it all about?

I previously saw director Carol Morley's docu-drama DREAMS OF A LIFE and that was a similar film in that it had an interesting premise but sub-standard execution. Plus, Morley doesn't seem to be very assured at getting good performances out of her actors, and the acting is of a distinctly wishy-washy standard here. I love Maisie Williams in GAME OF THRONES, but she seems unsure of herself here and sometimes just feels like Arya in a school uniform.

Always best on IMDb to ignore the entire crop of 5 starred reviews. They are either deliberate plants to puff the film or starry eyed peeps of little discrimination. I really wanted to like this film. More than decent cast; great location; credible period (late 60's) After 20 minutes I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Several people in the audience just got up and left. Can't quite put my finger on it. It kept hinting as social 'issues' but nobody actually verbalised them. Lots of serious thesps giving deep and meaningful looks, but never saying anything. And why do directors think everyone in the 60s chain- smoked....at assemblies! They didn't!

When a charismatic classmate dies, her school-friends start to suffer from a mysterious mass fainting fit. Is it supernatural, grief or just a cry for attention? The headmistress (well-played by Greta Saatchi) just wishes it would all go away. It's a nice concept, but the film seems too obviously sympathetic to the girls, without really letting us inside their heads. Oddly, they don't seem to be so freaked out by their condition. Also, the soundtrack is absurdly intrusive, and deflates rather than enhances the natural atmosphere. And there's just a little too much in the way of extraneous plot - budding sexuality, a troubled mother - daughter relationship - to truly build the sense of claustrophobia which would be needed to make the film a success. Overall, it's just a little bit blander than one might have hoped.

In all truth I came by this film due to the fact that I was actually a boarder at the school where this was filmed! Spent 5 years there (MANY moons ago), and ultimately the school closed, so me and a ton of other former-pupils were doing the rounds to watch the movie and see our old school!

I then noticed that Maisie Williams and Florence Pugh were in it, so had SOME degree of expectation.

As an ex-Director myself, I can whole-heartedly say that this was the worst directing I have ever seen. Period! The shot selection and scene setting (of which there was almost none) was frankly dreadful and in truth - amateurish.

The story itself lacked ANY sense of position, location, scene setting, plot - I could go on...

It is totally beyond me what the BFI were thinking when they agreed to fund this piece of simply utter rubbish.

Set in the 1960s at an all girl school we meet Lydia (Masie Williams) who has a best friend in Abbie. They have it all as friends and a love of nature centring around an old oak tree. They have a mixed bag of teachers who seem to adhere to Victorian values and modesty principles – that is despite the burgeoning 'summer of love'.

Then tragedy happens and Masie starts to have fainting fits – very soon the phenomenon spreads and she seems to be at the centre of it. Throw in a mum with issues (Maxine Peake) and a bit of the Occult, forbidden sex and deep rooted paranoia and you have the makings of a rather good story.

Maxine Peake is billed starring here, but she is not really on screen for a great period of time; Greta Scacchi as the dowdy Miss Mantel is though pure excellence in a performance dripping with understatement. I have seen comparisons to 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' and even the events around Salem and the subsequent Witch trials. However, I think such comparisons may lead to expectations that may not be met. It is though a film that had a great idea and I think it could have been taken much further as it sort of peters out; despite that it is still on I can recommend.

In 1969, Lydia (Maisie Williams) and Abbie (Florence Pugh) are two best friends at an English girls' school, but their peace is shattered when Lydia is taken over by a mysterious illness. Her behaviour becomes erratic and uncontrollable, and as a result, her emotionally distant mother (Maxine Peake) becomes increasingly disquieted. As the illness spreads throughout the school, it begins to take its toll and tear the tight-knit group apart, and the cause of it seems to lie deeper in the minds of the girls than anyone could ever have expected.

Williams and Pugh are enchanting as Lydia and Abbie, and the supporting cast, including Greta Scacchi and Monica Dolan, give the film a perfectly executed sense of perception. Peake, too, gives an astounding performance, stealing the scene with every word she utters.

Carol Morley's direction creates a lingering uneasiness about the film, which contrasts eerily with the stunning landscape of the English countryside. The story is layered with intertwining details that increase the enigmatic charm of it without crossing the fine line into pretentious melodrama.

Despite, at times, being directionally unclear, the film's dream- like quality brings all of the elements of the production together to form a visually stimulating mystery drama. This haunting tale of mass hysteria is a masterpiece that only proves Morley's promise as a feature film director.

I thought it was very good - it's a slow atmospheric movie in the British movie tradition of Nic Roeg. Reviews here complain of unanswered questions but that's only if you don't pay attention.

I did think it was a private school, but seems not - a private school of the 1960s would be more the environment where repression and hysteria are confined, only to spiral out of control.

It did lose pace in the last quarter, though concluded with a strong scene. Acting was excellent from all the main parties.

I'll certainly look out for her next film. Ludicrously I'm now required to add more lines to make my review more interesting - a pithy review of the salient points is far better than a lengthy ramble.

As other's have said above the mother figure was the least satisfactory - being a class conscious Brit there was a clear disconnect between the mother's Southern England rural accent and the daughter's well spoken accent - was it meant to be a grammar school? I don't know.. otherwise the late 60's was very well drawn.

Greetings from Lithuania.

Oh my god, i can't believe that i just applauded by the end of the movie. First time in many many moons, i have applauded not for that it was a good movie, but for that it Finally ended. What a terrible, boring, uninvolving, self pretentious "The Falling" (2014) is. I'm always open to any kind of movies, but only if it is made interestingly and is involving. The story can be biggest nonsense, but if it is made with some skill that glues you to the screen, i'm in for a ride. "The Falling" had nothing that could kept my attention during it's exhausting 1 h 37 min run. This movie dragged beyond anything i've recently watched. The story was so ... bizarre that i barely made though this painful movie in a week, limiting my watch for like 15 min a day - this piece of garbage should be used as a torture devise to terrorists to blow their minds.

Overall, "The Falling" makes me angry, that movies like these are being made at all. There is anything that resembles anything close to a compelling motion picture. The only thing that saved this garbage from vote 1 were a quite good songs used in this movie. Listen the soundtrack, and avoid this piece of trash at any cost.

This is not a commercial film. It is a concept film, the parents, the same person, are both writer and director. There is no room for any other. The cadence is that of a lover calling out to its self. Born by the talents of exceptional actors. But its private world is inhospitable to the onlooker. The pace is excruciatingly slow and self absorbed, the hope is that the audience will be lulled into the same reverie of the lover. But many will be alienated in the process. I was one who stayed to the end just out of curiousity but beyond exceptional performances I found little there to justify the observation. I give the film a 6 (self-absorbed) out of 10. {Drama, Mystery}