A Frontmezzjunkies film review: James and Colin Krisel explore the messy collision of friendship, desire, and romantic idealism in a London-set love triangle.

By Ross

It’s a funny thing that happens to my nervous system when I watch people do the very thing I know they shouldn’t do, particularly when the film has taken such care to set up all the reasons they should know better. I feel the deep desire to shout at the screen, “No, no, no!” while also settling in to watch the inevitable complications unfold. There is something wonderfully human about that impulse, and “Falling“, the romantic drama, written and directed by James and Colin Krisel, knows exactly how to play with that particular human weakness. The film draws us into a tangled web of friendship, attraction, loyalty, and the rather dangerous business of believing someone might be your soulmate. It is a very British romantic adventure, set against a London that looks like an exceptionally inviting travel guide, filled with cool pubs, pretty streets, festive late-night possibilities, and three very attractive people whose romantic lives are about to become considerably messier than the streets they wander through.

“This is the story of Johnny, and it’s the story of Jack,” we are told in the first few minutes, almost as if someone is opening a book and inviting us to settle in. Jack, played handsomely by KJ Apa, is the sly, quick-witted, commitment-averse lawyer who likes to think of himself as a realist. He doesn’t believe particularly strongly in love, or even in the work that pays for his drinks and nights out. His philosophy seems to involve good friends, casual encounters, and keeping anything too emotionally demanding at a comfortable distance. When his heartbroken friend Johnny sits on his stoop feeling sorry for himself, Jack is soon in an Uber, trying to coax him into an evening of friends and familiar surroundings at their local hangout.

Johnny, played with an appealing puppy-dog sweetness by Archie Renaux, represents another familiar British romantic type. He is an aspiring writer and bookshop worker who has apparently been stuck on the same page of his soon-to-be-completed novel for quite some time. As a serial monogamist, Johnny is a believer in the perfect soulmate, and a man whose literary imagination may have been influenced by one too many readings of Jane Austen or the like. He also has the most adorable weiner dog, who lovingly rides with him to work and seems to belong so completely to his owner that I was already won over. There is a little 101 Dalmatians magic in the way the two of them look together, and Johnny’s hangdog expression and sweet smile make it very easy to understand why Jack feels the need to look after him.

Then Jillian arrives, and the whole carefully arranged dynamic begins to wobble, especially when Jack’s earlier suggestion that she might be Johnny’s perfect match starts to take on an entirely different significance. Sharply portrayed by Isabel May, she is a woman who seems determined to experience as much of the world as possible, moving from job to job and relationship to relationship with an appetite for whatever comes next. She and Jack meet in a way that even they recognize as something out of a cheesy movie, but Jillian has a way of moving to a different rhythm than what Jack is used to. “I think plans are stupid,” she says before leaning in for their first kiss, a move that catches Jack off guard and turns the usual game of romantic pursuit on its head. He is accustomed to charming his way into romantic and sexual situations, but Jillian has her own sense of adventure and impulse. The attraction between them develops with a cinematic confidence that makes us want to believe in their story, even as Jack’s earlier predictions about where it might lead begin to look rather ominous. Jillian throws herself into the romance with an openness that seems entirely natural to her, and we are left wondering whether this is her London storybook tale or simply another chapter before the next adventure.

Johnny, sitting on the other side of that table, is watching his best friend’s new romance with genuine affection, although there is an unmistakable undercurrent of envy and hope. His own life takes an unexpected turn when he learns that his ex, Brooke (Emma Laird), is having his baby, news that gives Johnny an entirely new set of questions to contemplate as he watches Jack and Jillian’s relationship develop. There is something in the energy between Johnny and Jillian that makes it difficult to ignore the possibility of where this story might be heading. The supporting friends add their own delightful observations to the unfolding mess. Diana (Alex Jarrett), a close friend to both men, is doing her best to play Switzerland while enjoying her own relationship with Rick Steve Dave, a man whose three first names and fondness for rugby shirts apparently raise a few questions. Wheller (Nick Hendrix), Jillian’s gay friend from work, gets one of the film’s wittier lines, naturally, when he declares that marriage has ruined gay culture, only to be reminded that he is married to the love of his life, Jason, and he couldn’t be happier. These exchanges give the film a lively social world, where everyone is watching, commenting, and occasionally getting caught in the crossfire of somebody else’s romantic decisions. It feels natural, although the ease with which everyone seems to fit into everyone else’s lives occasionally seems a little too convenient.

The Krisels clearly enjoy exploring the peculiar ways that friendship and desire can become tangled, and the film has a knowing sense of how easily people can convince themselves that their feelings justify the risks they are taking. We have all experienced some version of that moment when an attraction threatens to upset an established relationship, even if the decision to act on it remains safely inside our own heads. I won’t be telling any stories, but there is something recognizable about the way the film plays with the soulmate ideal, the novel fantasy that one person might arrive and suddenly make all the pieces fit with the three J’s, Jack, Johnny, and Jillian, at the centre of all that emotional uncertainty. Apa gives Jack an appealing mix of confidence and vulnerability, Renaux brings Johnny’s romantic longing a genuine sweetness and ache, and May has a lively, unpredictable presence that makes Jillian a compelling force in their lives. Mike Stern Sterzynski’s cinematography gives London a warm, inviting glow, while Andrew Holden-Stokes’s production design creates the feeling of a city made for an extended pub crawl through its most appealing corners. The visual atmosphere adds to the film’s romantic appeal, drawing us into a world where a few drinks, a chance encounter, and one impulsive decision can send everything spinning. We know this set-up, as the Brits seem to have a particular knack for creating this sort of Rom-Com world, and somehow we buy into all of it, happily, along with a pint and a bag of crisps.

There are moments when I wanted to grab these characters by their shoulders and shake some sense into them before they made a terrible mistake. Yet, there are other moments when I was perfectly happy to watch them make it, as we know what we are buying when we sit down with these three. “Falling” occasionally Ubers through some pretty familiar romantic territory, and some of its developments are easy to anticipate, but it also understands the uncomfortable mixture of affection, desire, jealousy, and loyalty that makes these situations so difficult to navigate. The “I know you both too well” moment becomes a particularly revealing turning point, carrying a sting of recognition alongside an unexpected tenderness. It is a careless moment, perhaps, but one that gives the emotional complications a welcome sense of authenticity. I was particularly grateful that the film doesn’t feel obliged to wrap everything up in a big, shiny happy-ending bow. Romance is messy, people make questionable decisions, and sometimes the story simply has to let those decisions stand. I may have wanted to shout ‘No, no, no!‘ at the screen more than once, but I also understand why these people keep moving towards the very trouble they should see coming. And if these three J’s are going to make such a glorious mess of their romantic lives in “Falling“, we might as well pull up a chair, order another pint, and enjoy the London scenery, the anti-fairytale chaos, and all the glorious British cheek they throw at us.

Gulf Stream Pictures’ “Falling” opens in limited theatrical release this weekend, with screenings at Yonge-Dundas in Toronto and International Village in Vancouver. The film will also be available on VOD and digital platforms in Canada beginning November 10.