Writer and director Carol Morley imagines a neat twist on the coming-of-age drama, but struggles to find a way to nurture its spectacle, to the point where characters treat teen girls fainting on mass as a tiring inconvenience.

| Jun 4, 2024

You can also feel shades of Picnic At Hanging Rock in some of the film’s shot compositions and its woozy atmosphere.

| Feb 13, 2024

Morley pushes the film鈥檚 "mystery鈥� beyond any audience guessing games to a level of bewilderment above any useful analysis, leaving viewers in a state of excited shock.

| Aug 2, 2023

A difficult film, and a film about difficult women.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 30, 2023

Poetic, bewitched, disturbing and unforgettable.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2020

Despite Tracey Thorns haunting score and Agnes Godard's spellbinding photography, the film feels aesthetically and narratively discordant, crammed with too much style and too many ideas to ever coalesce into something truly memorable.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 5, 2019

If you're up for something weird and very dark and like leaving with as many questions as answers, this British-made oddity may be for you.

| Oct 30, 2017

Having gone to an all-girls school where fainting got you out of gym, seeing Carol Morley's The Falling about an extreme version of this set in 1969 was weird but compelling, as at this school the prettiest and most audacious pupil dies.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 22, 2017

The Falling speaks out to young women and represents that feeling of discomfort and complete bewilderment about their bodies, their futures and their minds.

| Dec 7, 2016

The end result is a mish-mash of promising ideas lost in naff filmmaking.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 11, 2016

A preposterous ending, saturated in baptismal overtones, is the last straw.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 6, 2016

This seductive waking-dream is a must-see.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 2, 2016

There are so many acute insights, striking images and impressive performances in it, not least from lead Maisie Williams, it's a tragic shame that elsewhere inexperience shows and the last 15 minutes devolve into a morass of melodramatic incident.

| Dec 15, 2015

Writer and director Carol Morley goes for "a look how shocking we are" scene of incest. It just detracts from what had been an intriguing movie about mass hysteria.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 11, 2015

The film all leads to a melodramatic climax that wraps up the main character's explosive acting out in a too-neat package.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 23, 2015

Williams has been a promising young actress for a few years...The Falling allows her to unhinge for a while as her storyline creeps darker and darker.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 19, 2015

The beauty of the film is that it is at once personal and universal, with an ability to make you feel nostalgic for friendships and teenage journeys that were probably, at the time, not actually very nice at all.

| Jul 10, 2015

Often unnerving, and always interesting, but rarely as lyrical as the film seems to be aiming for.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 2, 2015

The Falling could have been a great horror film, though you will have to wade through most of it to see why.

| Jul 2, 2015

It stumbles in the final act due to the need for an ending, but The Falling is beautifully shot, wonderfully atmospheric and very powerful.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2015