After the Fall

source: After the Fall

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.

If the movie title was changed to Low Effort Stumbling Around, then perhaps this would have made a bit more sense. This is just painful to watch at times, and we have to endure some teenage writing. A horse walks into a bar, why the long face type writing. This is a line in the movie which gives you an idea. After someone loses their job and things get tight, most people are going to feel some sort of stress. Here we have a guy who does the most idiotic stuff possible and does it several times and I'm not sure what the point that the writer/director had. After reviewing the writer's work we can see that it's limited with low scores. The director is actually a film editor and this is his first attempt in the main chair, most likely his last. If your goal is to make a mundane, slow and boring movie about lifeless characters than you succeeded Saar Klein, otherwise go back to editing.

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.

(2014) After The Fall DRAMA/ CRIME DRAMA Co-written and directed by Saar Klein starring Wes Bentley as insurance investigator, Bill Scanlon who has just begin to put some money into a new house with a swimming pool and so forth, learns he is being laid off putting him in a tight spot. To proud to tell his wife about it, he thinks the the only solution is to us the family revolver to shoot himself. Only for him to accidentally rob a couple and enjoying it. What happened next is ludicrous is when a detective, Frank McTiernan (Jason Iasaac) is involve. Based on a time when George Bush JR was President foreclosing many homes.

Bill Scanlon (Wes Bentley) is an overly honest insurance adjuster who just wants to provide for his wife (Vinessa Shaw) and two children. His dad was a policeman and he doesn't see eye to eye with his father-in-law. Fifteen minutes into the film we discover...or if you read the by-lines (PLOT SPOILER) he has been layed off and can't find a job. He has been lying to his wife about his situation. Bill becomes an unlikely second story man, and while it pays the bills, he is really awkward at it. He has befriended a policeman (Jason Isaacs) who knew his father which complicates things. The problem I had with the film, and why others may like it, was the dry unrealistic character of the main actor. He was overly honest without being religious. His ignorance of pool maintenance was inane. The crime scenes lacked any real excitement, as this was a character study of someone who wasn't close to being real. If you want an action or crime film, go elsewhere. This production was a winner at the Deauville Film Festival, so maybe it's just me. I couldn't wait for it to end. Guide: F-bomb, sex, butt nudity (Wes Bentley)

I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. It is a rather quiet movie, often seems like not much is happening, but it is an interesting character study and Wes Bentley is superb. It happens in real life, I've seen it on the news, an otherwise honorable family man will turn to crime, usually some sort of theft, and we later find out (after he is captured) that he was just trying to make ends meet. This is the essence of this fictional story. Wes Bentley is insurance adjuster Bill Scanlon. But he is a bit too honest for this job, and his employer thinks his adjusters should make it more difficult for clients to collect when they have a claim. He lets Bill go. But Bill has a nice home in the Albuquerque area, plus a wife and two young sons. Bill is too embarrassed to tell them, he continues to appear to go to work while trying to figure out ways to keep away foreclosure and loss of his car. He resorts to pawning what he has that is most valuable. Sinking deeper into a funk Bill takes the gun he had saved from his dad, a former police officer, goes into the desert to contemplate his options, it seems he is even thinking suicide might be the answer. But he doesn't and wanders over to a new housing complex to find water. It is mostly deserted but as he wanders around a model home hears noises and walks in on a couple, not married to each other, having loud sex in a side room. Startled and seeing a gun in his hand they began to ask him not to shoot, they offered Bill all their money, and tell him "No one can find out about this." Bill was bewildered, he wandered into theft quite by accident, but it gave him an idea. This might just be his ticket out of debt, at least until he gets a new job. The story is well-written and authentic. Vinessa Shaw who plays his wife Susan Scanlon begins to get suspicious. As does new friend Jason Isaacs as detective Frank McTiernan, who it seemed had quite accidentally met Bill at a bowling alley but in fact had known about Bill's dad. Good movie, better than its rather low IMDb rating might indicate. Wes Bentley is just super in this role and it makes one think "What would I do if I found myself in that situation?" Bill never started out to be a thief, he just stumbled into it. But where will it lead and what will it end up being? SPOILERS: Soon some other man gets arrested and charged with the thefts that Bill had done. Being basically a good and caring person he wanted to do something to help, he even looked up the man's house and was going to leave a gift. But McTiernan by that time had pretty much figured out it was Scanlon and gave him some advice. Bill managed to let it go, later we see him as a real estate agent and he is showing a home for sale. He has gotten back on his feet, but as he later drives through town and stops at a light, he sees the police station across from him, the movie ends as we assume he is still mulling over whether he should admit to what he has done.

Enjoyable throughout, each character is portrayed with quality and skill, even those with small rolls enhanced the film with realism. Cinematography, direction production, all very skillful, although I can't claim to understand everything, particularly the Coyote and the meandering shots of wilderness on the horizon. Thought provoking and challenging, the film continues to ask questions long after the final credits roll. *slight spoiler* The main characters journey through conformity through liberation, and then ultimate responsibility is a refreshing change from the all too often one dimensional 'stars' today.

If you told me they made this movie up as they went along, I'd believe it. At one point, the lead is in a car wash. Then with no explanation he's walking with a gun through the desert. Then he does a robbery. That's all in about five minutes. Then we'll throw in a drunken cop who doesn't bowl but is always in a bowling alley. Nothing in this movie made any sense. On top of that get ready for a nap. It's so slow.

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.