After the Fall

This movie depicts people's real life choices after struggling and having financial trouble. People around the world struggle to provide for themselves or their families, they are also unable to get a job, so they turn to a life of crime. Some criminals hate what they do, but they do it in order to survive. Some criminals do it because they love committing crimes and they are just antisocial and they get thrills out of doing what they do. I have turned to a life of crime under the same circumstances as depicted in this movie, so I understand what it feels like to not be able to get by and fail to get a job. So this is a decent movie and I have seen lots of other movies similar to this one. I enjoyed the movie, some hate it, some like it. It's just that kind of movie.

I think Bentley's role was created to ask the question, "How far would you go to maintain appearances for yourself and your family?" But what could've been rich in meaning is played out in a trite way.

First off I'd like to point out that the poster is clearly trying to make this look like a action-movie which is so far from what this is.

The poster seem to try to sell it as a new 'ASSAULT ON WALLSTREET (2013)' or something, and although there are some similarities between the two (both about 2 down on their luck men that lose their job and their mental state goes on a downward spiral) the approach and resolution is completely different.

Won't go into any details but yeah if you're watching it and waiting for some kick ass action to kick off you'll most likely be a bit disappointed.

I can't go into details without starting to spoil stuff so I'll just say that the movie-direction is a bit 'dreamy' at times like a little vague, even though the actual plot is fairly simple.

It doesn't come together 100% but the good outweighs the bad, Wes Bentley is fairly good but Jason Isaacs is probably the best actor of the film and helps carry the film back up from the ground occasionally by just delivering a natural and charismatic performance.

West Bentley plays the lead "Bill Scanlon" an insurance adjuster father and husband who got laid off after he bought a way too expensive suburban house in Albuquerque NM. But he is too proud to even tell his wife. So one day after he walks out into the neighboring desert to waste himself with an old revolver he finds he can't do it. So he wonders into a model house of a new subdivision where he finds a couple having sex, some sort of affair. So he ends up "accidentally" robbing them, then realizes sticking people up is lucrative and even fun.

So he embarks on a life of crime while still pretending to be working and even meets a down at his heels seedy detective played by the great Jason Isaac. He befriends them then takes them out in the desert where he gives the younger Bill a shooting lesson, after finding out Bill's dad was a cop. All sorts of things happen like his wife finds out he is out of a job and decamps with the kids to her dad's house. Our hero then decides to fill the pool in because "pools are such a hassle" even as he tries to unload the too big defaulting house. Then his wife comes back, why?

He also tries to play the good guy by threatening various hold up victims like a manager of a convenience store who was nasty to a cute employee he liked. The movie premiered at some German film festival where the audience ate it up as a perfect example of the rotten American dream and the rotten nuclear family.

I didn't buy it, especially with its dreamy camera work, slow pacing and emo score. It was just schlock pretending to be profound.

Our Protagonist is both an idiot and an unsympathetic moron. It absolutely blows my mind why this character would be written by this. This is not a "character study". The Direction and Performances present him as a "family man" and a "loving dad", while the writing portrays him as a sociopath. Meshed together, it makes a sickeningly stupid film.