ela@hoxna.UUCP (E.Asbeck) (12/06/84)
Rumor has it that an alternate title could be "Falling Asleep"
reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (12/11/84)
I can't characterize "Falling in Love" as a surprise, but
none the less it is a disappointment. Somehow, I never thought
that it would come together well, despite all of the high powered
talent involved. Still, it is too bad that so many talented peo-
ple wasted so much of their time on such a trifling movie.
"Falling in Love" tells the rather thin story of two people
who fall in love as a result of a series of encounters on a com-
muter train. Both are already married. Robert De Niro plays a
builder (or maybe an architect, it isn't made completely clear)
with a wife and two children. Meryl Streep is a commercial ar-
tist who comes into New York to visit her father in the hospital.
After a series of near misses, the two meet. Neither can quite
forget the other, and their subsequent meetings confirm that they
are indeed falling in love, just like the title says. Eventually
they must decide whether to give up their marriages for each oth-
er.
The only thing that could really qualify as a subplot is a
desultory bit of business with the worsening condition of
Streep's father, but this isn't stressed at all. Therefore, the
film rises or falls on how interesting the central love affair
is. Unfortunately, it is far from fascinating. De Niro and
Streep do not have very interesting characters. In part this is
due to Michael Christofer's script, but the actors must share the
blame. Both De Niro and Streep seem to be strongest when playing
characters with peculiarities. De Niro was fascinating in "Taxi
Driver" and "Raging Bull", and Streep was excellent in "Sophie's
Choice" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman". Faced with roles
without strong moments and good hooks, they seem lost, though.
Streep comes up with a mad scene at her father's funeral which is
entirely out of place, but otherwise the characters are very
dull.
Just as there is no plot support to the central theme, so
there is little character support. Harvey Keitel is OK as De
Niro's best friend, and Diane West is moderately interesting as
Streep's best friend (a little odd that each has an allocation of
exactly one friend, but that's Hollywood). In the final
analysis, though, they have little to do but listen to the stars
talk about each other and provide sketchy glances at alternate
lifestyles. The spouses are also underwritten, as is Streep's
father, and those are really all the characters there are.
"Falling in Love" has a few good moments, mostly based on
the wit of the script. Christofer has failed to provide the
Christmas tree, but at least he brought the tinsel. There is a
good scene early in the picture in which De Niro and Streep,
unaware of each other's presence, make calls home from adjacent
phone booths; their conversations begin to sound almost linked as
they go through the cliches of talking to your spouse on the
telephone. Ultimately, despite a few good scenes, tedium pre-
vails. Like me, you are likely to find your mind wandering as
leisurely, unimportant scenes plod across the screen.
Director Ulu Grosbard ("True Confessions") gets no plaudits
for "Falling in Love", either. The film would be about twice as
good if it were paced twice as fast. "Falling in Love" is lugu-
brious and labored. Grosbard shows little imagination in the
presentation of the love affair. In fact, the only innovation is
that the lovers do not go to bed together. There may be a film,
probably a comedy, maybe a tragedy, in continually frustrated
lovers, but Christofer and Grossbard make relatively little of it
here. The cinematography is strangely cold and sculptured. A
warmer, more golden feeling might have been better in keeping
with a love story. Considering the stars' backgrounds, anything
which speaks of portending disaster, as this photography does, is
probably a mistake in a film which seeks to be fairly light.
"Falling in Love" isn't worth seeing. That's what it
amounts to. The film is professionally made, of course, and no
one makes a fool of himself (or herself, either). I can't pic-
ture anyone caring about this film, though, or being moved by it.
If it shows up on cable on an otherwise slow night, you might
want to take the effort to turn the TV on. Further effort,
though, will be unrewarded.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher