REVIEW: ‘Find Me Falling’ Lands In The Middle

Written and directed by Stelana Kliris, Netflix Original rom-com Find Me Falling is a perfectly serviceable, middle-of-the-road tale of washed-up singer John Allman (Harry Connick Jr.). John returns to Cyprus after many years and a major career setback only to run into the subject of his most popular love song, Sia (Agni Scott). Well, maybe that’s half the reason he came to Cyprus in the first place. But what he didn’t expect, was for his new house to be located on a cliff recently made famous for being a popular spot for folks to jump to their deaths.

This plot point is quite worrisome for the first five minutes of Find Me Falling. Almost none of the humor in the whole film lands very well. It’s nearly all wrapped up in clichés about John being a foreigner or about the audience not speaking Greek. There are a few situational comedy moments that rock, but the dialogue is poor. So the opening scene, starting on such a dour note, felt foreboding.

Fortunately, the movie doesn’t attempt to make any more glib jokes from then on. In fact, the cliff becomes a salient point for John’s emotional growth. It’s just as cliché for the grumpy man to have his heart softened by the plight of various young women he has to intercede with. But these moments are treated sincerely and always feel like John is coming to genuinely care, rather than these other characters being merely foder for his growth then shuffled off right away.

Another glaring source of bad attempts at dialogue is in the early scenes with John and local singer Melina (Ali Fukimo Whitney). The persistent banter about whether she’s flirting with him or whether he’s too old and gross is simply not funny. It’s not only humorless, but it’s also confusing because, in too many rom-coms, those jokes would be foreshadowing a future soiree. Given the direction their relationship and their dialogue goes from there and how much more solid it becomes, this was a rather frustrating way to start Find Me Falling. The whole movie would be just a little bit better were the tone not so intent on shocking you at the onset.

The poor taste of the opening sequences does, at least, lead to one of the movie’s brighter spots. Were it not for the jumper three minutes in, John wouldn’t meet Captain Manoli (Tony Demetriou). Their friendship is a bright spot for positive male relationships in rom-coms. They’re not romantic rivals in the least. They’re simply chums who support one another again and again in times of need. They also simply hang out, and Manoli is cause for some moments of levity. The fun they have here and there doesn’t fully make up for the lack of outright humor, but it comes close.

Another element that works through and through is the movie’s music. If your movie is going to be about musicians, it better have good music. From John’s rock music to the music of Cyprus, to Melina’s singing, and to the movie’s title track, it’s all quite solid. Not only do all of the songs fit the mood, they’re all well-written and could easily find themselves on the radio. The only issue is that the audio tracking seems off for the whole movie. That is, if you decide to take the last scene literally and consider the version of the song being played an incomplete recording demo and not something that’s been fully mixed and mastered yet.

Find Me Falling is a perfectly serviceable, middle-of-the-road rom-com. It’s breaking no ground and has plenty of faults. But, it’s an entertaining ride with a number of likable characters, good arcs, and enjoyable music.

Find Me Falling is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.