When a Man Falls in the Forest

WHEN A MAN FALLS IN THE FOREST is a movie that in Italy and few other European countries was released in theaters but in the US was released straight to video. And although this statistic might mean it's a terrible movie, it wasn't. Now please don't assume I loved it, but I mildly liked it.

The film is about the interwined lives of a group of people that are not really happy despite the apparences. Karen Fields (Sharon Stone) is a woman frustrated of her life and her separated at home husband Gary (Timothy Hutton) wants desperately to find the joy of live while being addicted to alcohol. Bill (Dylan Baker) is a janitor that is afraid of meeting new people and is annoyed by a family with kids that moved near his apartment and Travis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) is a man that lives marked by a trauma.

I liked the performances. Stone and Hutton were fine at playing an estranged wife and husband that after a while are reunited with their daughter that came for a visit, and Baker was good at the janitor. My issue was that some of the actions of Travis didn't make a lot of sense and I really hoped that the lives of the characters would have hugely improved but the ending left it open. As it is, it's a decent drama about the lives of some people with their problems but nothing more.

The original title of this bleak film - WHEN A MAN FALLS IN THE FOREST - was inexplicably shortened to the nebulous WHEN A MAN FALLS for the release of the DVD: had the original title been retained, the audience may have been given a clue as to the intended message of the story. This is the second film for 26-year old writer/director Ryan Eslinger and it does suggest that he wants to deal with some existential material, but he has a way to grow into how to make it happen.

The lives of three men and a woman are interconnected in the all too common shallow 'relationships' that are a major problem in how our society is working. Bill (Dylan Baker) is a night janitor in a large company, a man who shuts out the boring world with his earphones connected to the great opera classics: he avoids people including those who saunter past him and those whose chaotic lives in the next door apartment distress him. Gary Fields (Timothy Hutton) is a down and out professional man who works in the building that Bill nocturnally keeps tidy, the two 'old high school acquaintances' meeting only because Gary has taken to sleeping in the office. Gary's wife Karen (Sharon Stone, without makeup and looking spent and used) has lost all feeling for living, detests Gary, and finds her only joy is in shoplifting. Gary has shut himself off from old friends for reasons that seem to be related to an accident that involved is best friend Travis (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a man at odds with his own environment. The only apparent connection here is that, once Gary discovers that Bill is a night janitor, Gary and Travis feel guilty that their response to Bill in high school had been one of cruel ridicule. Each of the four main characters wanders aimlessly through a world that has become strange and vindictive and it is only a bizarre incident that throws the quartet into some semblance of meaning. Each person has fallen, but since they are in the midst of a lonely 'forest', has anyone noticed or cared? This could be a study in personal tragedy were it done better, but despite the fine credentials of the actors, the script is so full of holes that character development suffers and what results is not unlike watching an injured bull struggling around a bullfight ring as the crowd attends to the matador et al. Sadly we just don't care about these damaged people, making connection with the film next to impossible. Maybe next film...Grady Harp

The movie that will make all others shine. American Pie becomes an epic artistic accomplishment in comparison. To its credit, somehow it does manage to out-bore watching paint dry, out depress tax return season, and generally is the only movie i can think of that's worse than an hour and a half with your dentist.

This must be the worst movie ever made. 1.5 hours of your life are stolen from you with zero interest, humor, plot, story, emotion, or even drab dialog given back in return. How could they make a movie about nothing and just keep going sideways, on and on. I kept waiting for something to happen; a redemption that brilliantly ties it all together. Something to make it worthwhile. Surely the boring, depressing nothingness is like the start of Bolero, that we need hang in there to be amazed with some forthcoming stroke of brilliance tying it together? don't hold your breath, there's no crescendo in this one, the entire movie doesn't rise above a sad whimper.

This film is a dramatic look at the lives and relationships (or lack of relationships) of the four main characters. It is a thought provoking look into what can happen when we allow ourselves to dwell within our personal misery to the point that we can no longer connect to those around us. The acting, writing, cinematography and direction are excellent, and the film is riddled with beautifully captured moments of life to which so many people can relate. If you are looking for a shallow sexy thriller, see Basic Instinct or Sliver. But if you are someone who appreciates the simplistic intricacies of what makes up the soul of a person...this movie is an excellent choice for you. It is a mature film that doesn't lay the emphasis on effects and the usual circus but on the subtleties and realities of people standing in the middle of their lives.

i picked it out because of sharon stone, i knew it had to be at least up to par. i didn't have any idea that by the next 90 minutes later, that i would want to tear my own eyes out. it was so depressing that i was depressed before it was half way through. not but one time did it even make sense or connect any of the people in it. when it was on the shelf it sold me on a psychological thriller. wow thats so lieing. in my opinion it was one of the worst movies i have ever seen. and i thought i had seen a lot of substandard movies. this made no sense, everyone had a scene one after another of sleeping, on couch, on roofs. and they all were severely unhappy. not a single smile or hardly any words spoken from sharon stone in the 4 scenes from her. i can not believe she did this movie at all. she must have been dirt broke or something really awful. i don't recommend anyone see this or spend money on this junk.