Ive watched all but the last episode of the The Falls second season (now on Netflix). Its hard to leave once you start. The first season, about a brutal but terribly smart and surprisingly empathetic grievance counselor (played by Jamie Dornan) who murders women in Belfast, and about the English police investigator (Gillian Anderson) who is coordinating the hunt for him, told a brutal and often surprising (and terribly startling) story in explicit scenes and images. Not easy watching, and not recommended at all for those with qualms. The new season is just as mesmeric and creepy but--at least up until the end of the penultimate episode--isnt yet graphic in its violence (it appears that most or all of the violence--and rage--happened in the first season, though theres still episode five), though the emotional and psychological effect is, if anything, more palpable and devastating. That effect is all the more interesting for the storys pace and tone and portrayals: The main roles, by Anderson and Dornan, are mostly one-note: calm, steady, monotone, with few outbursts of panic or anger, and most of the story is either dialogue or long silent scenes. One scene in particular is thoroughly chilling--an offhand conversation between the killer and a young woman on a train, as Dornan essentially presents himself as the man who is being hunted yet she finds him comfortable to talk to (he is, after all, one of best bereavement counselors in Ireland); she even reveals to him where she lives. Throughout the conversation he is measuring her, and the tension is almost unbearable. The best portrayal, I think, comes from Aisling Franciosi, playing a sixteen year old who is completely obsessed by the man she suspects might be the murderer and wants him to accept her, even if it means that he kill her. Everything in the two seasons first nine episodes leads to the final five minutes of season twos fourth episode, in which Dornan makes plain to Franciosi his world view; its not an original view--in fact, almost hackneyed in its main construct--but in Dornans speech it seems veritable. If you watch The Fall, watch it late at night. Or maybe not. It stays with you.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 23:45:35 +0000
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