Fall Into Me Movie Review
Fall Into Me Review
Weak
Rating: NR
2006
Cast & Crew
Director : Tim VandeSteeg
Producer : Tim VandeSteeg
Screenwriter : Heidi Fellner, Tim O'Brien, Tim VandeSteeg
Starring : Ron Menzel, Heidi Fellner, Meisha Johnson, Kimberly Morgan, Andre Samples, Justen Jones, Stacia Rice
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You'd be hard-pressed to find a film more by-the-numbers than Fall Into Me,
which covers some well-worn ground on its way to, on the whole, proving itself
to be at least a passable romantic comedy.
See how many of these characters, idiosyncracies, and plot points you've heard
before. Steven (Ron Menzel) is a geeky school bus driver. Maria (Heidi Fellner)
is a gorgeous hospital volunteer. Through innocent omission, Maria comes to
believe Steven is terminally ill with a rare kidney disease. He then uses this
to convince her to spend more time with him, and they fall in love. But the
truth -- that Ron is not a sickly bus driver but rather just a bus driver --
will come out in the end. I correctly guessed the running time at which that
would happen within three minutes. The surprise that follows is only a shock if
you find everything I've written before to be dazzlingly original.
Tim VandeSteeg wrote and shot this indie flick in Minneapolis, and it has the
scrappy feeling of a labor of love shot with virtual unknowns at hip locations
that would be happy to provide their services in exchange for a mention in the
credits. The good news is that the film isn't all bad. Fellner is a decent
enough actress and Menzel, though initially grating and clearly miscast as a
romantic lead, eventually comes across with enough goofy charm to hold our
interest.
It's too bad then that the script is so blatantly obvious that we can't help
but roll our eyes with each scene. Even the most casual of moviegoers will
quite literally see every turn of the action coming well in advance. The only
mystery in the movie is the one that's simply left unanswered at the end, and
for fear of spoiling it for the one or two of you who've never seen a movie
before I won't reveal it. Just let me ask aloud: After that trip to Paris, then
what happens?
