FALLEN
WenQing
Written by : Nicholas Kazan
Directed by : Gregory Hoblit
Main Cast : Denzel Washington (John Hobbes), John Goodman (Jonesy), Donald Sutherland (Lieutenant Stanton), Embeth Davidtz (Gretta Milano)
Produced by : Warner Bros.
Cinemas : Shaw Cinemas
Length : 120 minutes approx
Rating : * * out of * * * * *
TIME'S NOT ON YOUR SIDE
The "demons on earth" films just aren't what they used to be. Times have really changed since THE EXORCIST. If anybody caught THE PROPHECY in 1995, they'd realise the genre just keeps letting itself down in the climax, because it's built up an image of e vil that has to be explained in really oversimplified terms to close the finale. The same sad thing happened in THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE last year, when the film couldn't handle the material and just blew it away, turning it into Keanu Reeves' demonic dream o f riches and fame (dream on, Keanu, dream on). FALLEN doesn't attempt to explode the whole world into that nearly apocalyptic environment, but it doesn't achieve much suspense either, nor the insidious fear of some imperceptible yet ever-present evil hove ring in the world of man.
FALLEN is about decorated cop John Hobbes who begins the film with a voice-over "I wanna tell you about the time I almost died"... so he starts at the beginning with him, and other onlookers, watching the gassing of convicted murderer Reese (Elias Koteas ). Reese is freaky and scary, and keeps singing as the poison gas drifts around his body in the chamber. He's singing "time is on my side, yes it is", and from that moment, the whole audience gets the "last song syndrome," where those repeated lyrics keep ringing in your head, and more and more people in the movie turn up singing the same lyrics (like Aqua's "Barbie Girl"?). It's got a certain creepy quality to it, and the camera whirls out of the gas chamber as if Reese is having an out of body experienc e. But isn't Reese dead? Who's that floating around outside the chamber? Puzzling questions...
There are hints throughout that there is some supernatural edge to Reese's senseless incantations as he speaks to Hobbes for the last time before his execution. Later it's revealed that Reese was speaking in some ancient nomadic Aramaic tongue that he ca n't possibly have known, which adds that extra Middle Eastern weight to the tone of the movie (everything scary and pseudo-religious is usually labelled as Middle Eastern or Biblical... or really Oriental actually). Reese also leaves Hobbes with an inexpl icable riddle that makes the story take a mysterious turn that leads only to supernatural explanations.
![[ ]](/film/images/fallen3.gif)
All of a sudden though, murders start happening again and Hobbes is always tipped off by an unknown caller. The murders seem to copies of Reese's killings down to the last details, and one of the victims is a man that Hobbes bumped into the night befo re. Hobbes also gets implicated in the murders... and becomes a suspect on circumstantial evidence (which I didn't really believe myself). And Hobbes also has to unravel the mystery surrounding the 1960s apparent suicide of another decorated cop, Robert Milano, and his only lead is the late cop's daughter Gretta (Embeth Davidt). Gretta behaves as if she's hiding some deep and dark secret about her dad's death... and guess what, she's a theology professor and she advises Hobbes to stay away from this cas e if he cares for anyone in the world at all. It's all pretty nice up there in the idea formulation stage, but FALLEN fails to deliver in terms of its images and its realisation.
I think one problem is casting Denzel Washington as Hobbes. The film has got a hint of noir to it and some notions of horror, and Denzel's wise-guy sideways smile and jaunty voice never seem to settle into the anguished and weary tones of another Afri can American actor like Morgan Freeman... it almost blots out the dark aspect of the story, and erases the threat of demons lurking in corners. It was the same problem with Denzel in VIRTUOSITY and RICOCHET. He doesn't have those repressed demons trapped within himself, he's just too sunny half the time. Also, his live-in brother and nephew seem incongruous to the plot. His brother appears as too much tje bumpkin with a little brain, who has to be told all the time what to do by Hobbes. He asks cryptic a nd simpleton questions like "do you get scared Johnny?"
Another problem I had with FALLEN is that the demon that Hobbes was facing down wasn't scary. Too little was known about it (which could be a good thing... like in THE EXORCIST, where only a name was adequate... the actions spoke the rest), but what w as figured out about the demon sort of twisted itself into a GHOSTBUSTERS type of facile logic about how to beat the devil. It was hard to accept that a demon which seemed to have insurmountable power could at the same time be so feeble that human imagina tion could fathom its weaknesses. It's like the corny and talkative Al Pacino as the devil in THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE... especially his endless verbosity towards the end... a little too human, a little too corny, a little too easy for us to grapple with.
Somehow, the script by Kazan (who gave us the intelligent REVERSAL OF FORTUNE) didn't make the characters anyone we could care for. Denzel was out of sync, Sutherland was just an authority figure without any personality, John Goodman was a mouthpiece without soul and Embeth Davidtz read like a plot device to provide information... like the Jewish scholar in THE SEVENTH SIGN with Demi Moore... don't remember him? You won't really remember Davidtz either by the end of this film.
![[ Denzel Washington and John Goodman, contemplating new career movies ]](/film/images/fallen2.gif)
The slow development of the plot, and the dramatic irony of the audience knowing all along that some demon whose name is Azazel is playing pranks on the known world makes FALLEN trip and land face first the way Denzel scrambles about towards to end of the show... really desperate to make itself more exciting by accelerating the movie at the end. What's worse is that Denzel's normally intelligent character-playing falls flat here. It's like Chazz Palminteri as Detective Kuvian in THE USUAL SUSPECTS, he tells Kevin Spacey that he's smarter, but really he's the one who's stupid. Hobbes is similarly slow to catch the clues that the audience gets years ahead, and we wait and wait and wait for him to realise he's facing down some evil spirit and he doesn't find out till way late in the show. That, and Denzel's positively incongruous voice-over narration... sounding like a wise-ass doleing out tons of cop-life plums of wisdom, making it seem, as he claims, that cops are the "chosen people." It's almost laugh able how proud he is, not fathoming how little he knows.
The thing I don't understand is, though, why these TV show directors come to the big screen and don't always make it happen. Michael Mann ("Miami Vice") gave us the thrilling LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and yet bored us with the all too "extended TV movie" HEAT. David Lee Zlotogoff ("MacGyver"... do you really watch it either?) gave us the warm, touching but pathetic THE SPITFIRE GRILL. And Mimi Leder ("ER") gave us the "bang bang shoot 'em up with no plot and characterisation" THE PEACEMAKER. So here's Gre gory Hoblit, Emmy-winning director of "NYPD Blue", "LA Law" and "Hill Street Blues", who gave us PRIMAL FEAR, but flops with FALLEN. I don't know, but the longer we give FALLEN, the cornier it gets, the less it suspends disbelief (check out the primal wei rdness of the "tag you're it" chase scene when the demon pursues Gretta, it's hilarious!), and the more that mind bending song keeps going on in my head. By the time Hobbes' voice-over gets to telling us "about the time (he) almost died", I don't even car e anymore. Time's not on your side... two hours is too long to spend on this one.
The Flying Inkpot's Rating System
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Tonight With Gurmit.
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
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