Slow, mostly predictable, and about as emotionally moving as a Zoloft prescription.

"The Falling" has an eerie and unique story: a girls' school in the late 60's is the stage of an epidemic hysterical fainting. The strange phenomenon is a metaphor for the contagious sexual liberation that starts with the death of an emancipated girl. The movie is a melodrama with some subtle elements of the supernatural. Beautifully weird!

For a film that centers on what may or may not be an outbreak of hysteria, this is surprisingly low-key - and all the more powerful for its restraint. Maisie Williams' lead performance is nothing short of remarkable. Given that this is a film about said hysteria amongst a group of girls, I wondered if the naming of Florence Pugh's character as Abigail was a nod to The Crucible. Similarly to that great play, the words of girls or young women are doubted and second-guessed; by adults - especially men; it's also very specifically a film about the specific, often unvoiced, experience of teenage girls learning what their bodies are and how they relate to those bodies with their minds, emotions and sexuality. A mention also for the excellent music, which together with director Carol Morley's deft uses of flashed images throughout, weaves an unsettling air of uncertainty all through the film, an uncertainty which is never fully resolved.

i watched this movie it was little too boring for me also i didn't know what was going on.

I can't say much without spoiling the story but the last couple of minutes of the feature are an amazing and truly deep emotional payback. Well done!

I really liked this film. the nostalgic British setting was brought through very well in props, costume set and filming. I thought some of the acting was good, though it definitely had room for improvement. (quite a bit of it felt a little over-acty-ish) There's something so undeniably frustrating about this film - and I think that's part of why I like it. The thwarted young girls, who are completely unheard and ignored by adults in the uptight, keep-your-emotions-to-yourself '60s were portrayed well through (what I think was) the metaphor of fainting. the girls, overcome by a swelling grief and a feeling of palpable connection to each other and their dead, fall. The ignorance of the older generation is then conveyed by adults literally stepping over their fallen bodies, as if bored or uninterested in their expression of grief. Dismissive, in a word. And the complex, nuanced and largely disturbing relationships between characters evokes the confusing emotions and inescapably huge feelings which are felt by exploring teenagers and young adults. the choice to have Abi on screen for so little time is a point of analytical conflict for me: on one hand, I find it interesting that her brief time on screen triggered such a cataclysm of events, and her absence only makes her more unattainable and mysteriously magnetic; on the other hand, I just found it frustrating not to get to know her well enough, so that we might have been able to empathise more with our protagonist who misses her so much and mourns her untimely death. towards the end of the film, I did start to feel like I was having déjà vu: I don't think they needed to have three whole scenes of Lyla disrupting assembly, in fact, I think the fewer of these scenes, the more impactful that last scene of all the girls convulsing and spacing out would have been. Many parts of the film were hard to watch (and if you've seen it, you'll know exactly what I mean) but this is done intentionally, to make it chilling and uncomfortable, as viewers are forced to watch some horrible mistakes be made by people who are still learning how to cope with growing up, with grief, a lack of stability and support and some very weird and upsetting family shit. the second half of the film was admittedly rather wooly in terms of plot, but the characters pulled it together a bit, with big secrets coming out along with a tsunami of suppressed emotions. Overall, 'the Falling' feels like one of those films that don't feel objectively good or bad, but my gut instinct says that I enjoyed it, so there. (also i really really REALLY love the cast and i think they perfect for their roles)

Very good, stays with you after watching. Good music too.

I never thought I’d see an actress eye-twitch their way to stardom, and yet here is Maisie Williams, tearing through the screen with an angry, raw adolescent vulnerability. Meanwhile the just-discovered Florence Pugh gives a promising first performance in the meantime. I remember thinking “that Florence girl, she’s got big things on the horizon.” I was right.

This arty, cringey and slow film blends a Virginia Woolf-inspired, existential coming-of-age story with horror as well as French new wave. I applaud the use of an almost wholly female cast. But from the start, it is an unwatchable string of clichés. The film hammers at the hackneyed theme of teenagers reconciling their elders' puritan values with their own sexualisation (cue horny schoolgirls and the horror of a prudish schoolmistress). The script was brief, blunt and coarse despite the film being set in the 1960s - and somehow manages to force its lead character to switch from swearing to reciting poetry without a blush. This lack of believeable content, plus the many musical sequences and the lack of judicious editing made it feel like a 90s music video. In the moments of surreal folk singing and 'fainting', I can see how appealing all these mystical images would have been to the director, but the result is unwatchable. I skipped every other scene. It was a bold attempt to meld several aesthetics I love - but it wound up mocking them.

THE FALLLING is a coming-of-age drama with some dire consequences. It's kind of a little puzzle for audiences to put together - a mystery with pieces that look like they might fit together. It distracts us along the way with subplots of romantic self-discovery, some of which are questionable or subversive. Overall, I don't know what to feel about the story. The filming is tight and personable and Williams and Pugh give their best, especially for their age and the subject matter. I can't really recommend this movie, but it's well done - good craftsmanship - as a drama about the more horrifying and potentially self-destructive difficulties of being a teenage girl.

Another incredible waste of two hours. Can't anyone make an adult movie anymore that isn't about mental illness in some form? How depressing. And all that drama leading up to nothing more than issues between a mother and daughter. When will I ever learn?

Really good acting. Interesting storyline. A little peculiar, but overall pay good.

Ugly woman and desperate woman for love. I rate it a 1 for giving up on her husband starting an affair like 99.9% of the women would do I. This world! Blech!

Has a great start until the personality of Florence Pugh disappears and from thereon in the film just meanders towards absolutely nowhere. Waste of time, doesn't tick any box really. Gets 3/10 for the start alone.

The Falling definitely falls into the category of "arty" but it's an interesting watch nonetheless. Maisie Williams has always been a formidable actress and she brings a lot more to her character than the director could likely have ever hoped for. The story really captures the complete confusion that is puberty in an all girl's school but falls flat at the end, choosing to wrap the story up in a neat little bow.

Maisie Williams is great as always, and the film around her good performance delivers unsettling, thought provoking thrills. If you are a? Game of Thrones fan, particularly an Arya fan, this is definitely worth a watch.

I don't know that I've seen many actresses eye-twitch their way to stardom, and yet here is Maisie Williams, who tears through the screen with a raw adolescent vulnerability.

Pseudo-psychological drama about mass hysteria which is in turn, boring, pretentious and frankly ridiculous. I don't doubt for an instant that this kind of event occurs but the underlying causes are nothing of interest other than very ordinary female sexual awakening. I can even see myself intheir place and it is frankly embarrassing.

This is a striking film, and open to multiple interpretations. Hysteria, horror? My problem is that it looks good, is well-acted (Maisie Williams is a global star in the making), but it's very obsessed with being Picnic at Hanging Rock; Don't Look Now and The Cement Garden. But it's not as good as any of those.

Very good film. Willimas' acting is superb, as always. Rest of the cast is good too especially Maxine Peak. The plot could of been excepted better, as many missed the point, but I believe I understood. The haunting atmosphere of the film is well executed due to the score and acing. It keeps you hooked throughout the film.