If only we could believe it

Film review: A Long Way Down (15) Running time 96 minutes
Rating:**
Generally, the taking of one’s life is not considered to be a hot topic for a romantic comedy film that seems to be aimed at age groups possibly considered by some to be those more likely to take the plunge, so to speak. The aptly-named A Long Way Down turns its thoughts to the younger generation and those of middle age and is based on a book by Nick Hornby. The tale is is typically off-beat, given the author, and focuses on the idea that four people have decided to leave this life from the summit of the same tower block at the same time – New Year’s Eve. After brief arguments about who goes first, they think going for a cup of coffee to talk about it sounds reasonable, and from there decide to enter a pact not to forego this world until the same day in a year’s time. Martin (Pierce Brosnan) is a formerly successful chat show host who messed it all up by committing adultery with a girl he thought was 25 but who, in fact, was 15. Cue media frenzy, disgrace, divorce, loss of job, house, wife and children. Penny (Rosamund Pike) is the mother of a profoundly disabled son, Matty, and is bone-tired and deeply depressed because of the 24-hour care and lack of support and understanding that she has to put up with. Jess (Imogen Poots) is the daughter of a dense and unsympathetic politician father, played by Sam Neill, and is grieving for her older sister who vanished two years previously. Finally, JJ (Aaron Paul) is a previously successful musician, now pizza delivery boy, who claims to be dying from brain cancer. After an abortive attempt to control news stories about their pact – leaked to the press by Jess’s former boyfriend – the four go on holiday, where they alternately have a great time and get plunged in despair. The question of what they finally decide to do can only be solved by you paying good Earth pounds and to find out for yourself. Hornby’s books strike many a chord with readers thanks to their mixture of modern angst and off-beat humour. Football (Fever Pitch), sound waves (High Fidelity) and orphan children (About a Boy) have worked equally well in print and on the big screen. However, this latest creation does not have quite the same melancholy neatness. It’s not the subject matter that is to blame, nor is it the actors, who give their roles 100 per cent. Frustratingly, I cannot quite work out for certain why the film feels wrong, but it does. The only thing I can come up with is perhaps the translation of dialogue from the book into a much more compact script has made the conversations more strained and therefore less believable.