After the Fall

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.

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.

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.

The film's poster convinces us that what we're about to see is another ordinary action film, with touches of an empathic and gripping drama destined to make us support the main character's actions. Don't be fooled by that image. "After the Fall" is a good drama with small portions of action, and the latter isn't all that compelling or exciting. Wes Bentley stars as a desperate man who takes extreme measures after losing job and being unable to take care of his family, surrounded by debts after debts. His only option: committing crimes, mugging the residents of his small town. On his trail there's a decadent detective (Jason Isaacs) who is trying to catch this new suspect who appeared in town all of sudden, but they barely knew they would cross paths early on and become buddies who are stuck in saddening times, with their personal crisis and just trying to find a way to live their lives.

More artistic than entertaining, "After the Fall" treats its themes by appropriating itself of some of Terrence Malick's techniques - though more conventional to mainstream audiences - with the use of the main character's narration remembering the lovely times he had with his family in their big house and their pool, describing the love and care he had for his wife and kids; and also appropriates of some "Breaking Bad" elements, without ever getting on the same level of greatness. Mr. Saar Klein's debut as director comes across as simple-minded, clichéd yet manageable and interesting due to the performances of Bentley and Isaacs (who steals the show, this time without playing the villain). Bentley was a decent anti-hero, you get easily involved with his obstacles, and enjoy each time he tries to help people in worst conditions than him (like the female cashier - but hey at least she has a job, awful but still), almost getting close to being a hero (helping the old man who spotted him before a robbery at a drugstore).

And if the movie loses points is because of its lack of alternatives and unusual conceptions. Why the lead character never, at no point, tries to get another job? He's stuck in that weird business, still trying to impress his former boss when he's no longer part of the company in ages. That part was really strange. And since when stealing pocket money from other people can be enough to make one rescue his taken car? He survives from stealing to stealing, and it's all very unconvincing. I won't even mention the solution given at the conclusion which the writer simply fast forward with a plausible explanation.

Here's another modern treaty about the swifty American dream; there's always crisis and always unexpected solutions but family always comes first. Even though you're about to lose them. 6/10

I doubt 'After the Fall' was conceived as a sequel to 'Falling Down' but the movies do have a similar subject. Wes Bentley plays the protagonist, who begins to have money issues after losing his job. His character is completely unsympathetic, a sociopath who lies easily to his family and goes on an increasingly reckless crime spree because he's too prideful to ask for money from his father-in-law. Instead, he robs complete strangers at gunpoint with an astonishing lack of anxiety or hesitation; he moves like a career criminal with no fear of getting caught. His occasional indulgence in rants and his spontaneous petty interventions suggest a desire for social justice, but his actions are transparently hypocritical and the film has established that nothing he says can be believed. It's hard to see any arc of development at all in this character because Bentley doesn't emote. He never varies his facial expressions beyond a look of frustrated detachment - his eyes never change, his face doesn't move; he walks quietly through dry scenes set to meditative music posing with the same look in every shot, and he never experiences remorse. His wife (Vinessa Shaw) is a trophy, a prop to suggest his motivation, but she's so completely oblivious and implausibly stupid, she doesn't interact enough to actually humanize him. There are plenty of scenes of his children happily playing or asking questions. The implication is that Bentley never swallows his pride because he cares for his family - that alone should justify lying to them and sadistically hurting whoever he wants. This movie will be of special interest to you if you think your wife is useless and your children are such a burden, it could justify murder and suicide.