Whatever the merits of Nick Hornby´s novel A Long Way Down, they fail to translate to writer Jack Thorne’s (The Scouting Book for Boys’) film adaptation that misfires on every count. From the first scene, where the four characters queue up on a London roof top to commit suicide on New Year’s Eve, it’s a long, tedious way to the end of the film.
That it has taken eight years to turn the novel into a film is less surprising than the fact it has happened at all. But Co-producer Amanda Posey is married to Hornby and, on paper, initial misgivings might be assuaged.
French Director Pascal Chaumeil’s delightful romcom Heartbreakers was an international success, while the cast comprises two hot young actors, Imogen Poots (Need for Speed, A Late Quartet) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), and two seasoned pros, Pierce Brosnan and Toni Collette.
And while it’s true that any subject can be made funny, you will be more likely to cringe with embarrassment for all involved than find anything to laugh at with A Long Way Down.
Martin Sharp (Brosnan) is a disgraced television presenter who lost his wife, children, fame and a lucrative job when he had an impulsive fling with a minor (‘who looked 25 to me’). But with suicide, one’s company, two’s a crowd and four’s a conspicuous excuse for a premise. And this being one of the most contrived premises, the crowd is evenly balanced by age, gender and class.
Martin is joined on the popular suicide spot by middle-aged, single-mother Maureen (a dowdy looking Collette); pretty and posh 18-year-old student Jess (Poots) and American musician turned pizza delivery boy JJ (Paul), Martin decides to go home.
While it is just about believable that he would offer his new acquaintances a ride home in the rain, it strains credibility that when Jess runs off to a night club all three suicidal strangers go look for her to make sure she is all right.
And while we are grappling with strained credibility, the foursome is making a pact to meet on Valentine’s Day and not to kill themselves before then. In the meantime, however, the story is leaked to the press and the four friends make the most of their fame.
But when Martin agrees to appear with the other three in an interview conducted by his former co-host (Rosamund Pike) things turns nasty as she probes too deep for comfort. If your credibility meter is not at record levels at this point, it will crack when the four some fly off to a foreign beach resort together to escape the press.
The film is divided into uneasy (since the characters become inseparable), chapters, each focusing on one character. This is the stuff of Psychology 101. We already know about Martin from his early narration.
Jess is the poor-little-rich-girl daughter of a politician. She craves attention and cannot bear to be alone. Maureen is cut off from life by her devotion to her severely disabled son while JJ’s career has gone nowhere.
There are loads of people with problems like these who do not attempt suicide and so these stories on their own tend to trivialise a serious subject. Moreover, there is a long sequence in which we are shown the extent of Maureen’s love and devotion to her son. Her suspicions that he would die without her leave us none the wiser as to why she would intentionally kill herself.
Far from being funny or insightful, the film’s treatment of suicide is so shallow that it becomes offensive.
The actors are helpless to build anything into the script and lazy direction by means of their squandered talent. British cinema was celebrated at the BAFTA’s and Academy Awards this year, but A Long Way Down reminds us that there are many more duds like this than Oscar nominees being churned out.
