Falling Down

Having seen Phone Booth and having liked it very much, I wanted to check out this earlier film of Joel Schumacher's, which I gathered had a similar theme. And it does -- a mis-understood man with a secret, in this case pissed off at the world -- but I found it lacking quite a bit of what I liked in Phone Booth. It could be that I like Colin Farrell over Michael Douglas (although he does a nice enough job). It could be that I preferred a film set in New York instead of L.A. (which is just too rambling to connect with). But, I think the crux of it is that I simply empathized with Farrell's character while I didn't at all empathize with Douglas'. Granted, Douglas has to play a character whom we're supposed to see pieces of ourselves in (just as Farrell's character) while at the same time gradually making it clear that he's gone round the bend. That's a lot for one character to handle. And yet, while I recognized the feelings Douglas' character had, I never felt that I would ever act on them as he did. Smashing up a grocery store just because you're peeved at the prices? Threatening a fast food clerk because they won't serve you breakfast 2 minutes after 11:30? Just plain hitting someone because you're mad at them? That's why he's insane and we're not.

year: 1993
length: 113 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106856/combined