MYST #3: A Long Way Down

I watch a lot trailers for movies that I never actually end up seeing. I binge watched a lot of trailers recently, and a lot of the films looked great, but I could not find many in theaters or even planned for wide release, until one night I was browsing Netflix and one of the first titles I saw was A Long Way Down. I instantly recognized the title from a trailer I saw earlier and decided to watch it.

My little brother, Wiley, asks me almost every other day if I have started watching Breaking Bad yet (I haven't), so when I saw Aaron Paul in this movie, I figured this was a close as I was going to get to that show without totally engrossing myself into that obsession. Pierce Brosnan also stuck out to me, (although honestly I've only seen him in Mamma Mia and part of one of the bond movies) but surprisingly only just as much as Imogen Poots, who I saw in Zac Efron's most recent bad movie, That Awkward Moment. She stuck out to me in the trailer because these two movies are so different. Toni Colette has most recently been in The Way Way Back, which is a movie I enjoyed a lot. All of the actors attracted me to the film.


Aaron Paul, Pierce Brosnen, Imogen Poots, and Toni Colette all meet on a rooftop on New Years Eve as JJ, Martin, Jess, and Maureen, respectively. They are all on the roof with one goal: to commit suicide. Martin is a TV personality turned hated pervert who misses having loving attention, Maureen feels hopeless in her repetitive life, Jess initially wants to get away from her boyfriend, and JJ has brain cancer (there's more to their reasons, but I don't want to spoil them). Fortunately, none of them end up jumping. By the end of the night, they all sign a pact to live until Valentine's day--the next most popular day for suicide. Due to Martin's celebrity status, and Jess's father's political job, this is brought to the media's attention. Besides one disaster of a talk show appearance, the four go back to their normal lives. We slowly learn more about these four people as they do so. The group eventually takes a trip together to get away from their lives. It is easy to forget that we are on somewhat of a deadline with February 14th as they drink, laugh, and even throw a few punches in the tropics. They return home to their normal lives only be brought together again on a faithful day, that ultimately changes their lives.

As the story developed, I started to feel connected to the four main characters (it took a while for Martin, but even him too). The four strangers also begin to strongly care for each other as well. Prior to this, when they make the pact, they sit along a wall facing a window. The sun is just coming up as their long night comes to an end. As Jess convinces them to make the pact, the lighting very slowly getting brighter in time with a sun rise. The camera sticks to only capturing the group on the one wall, until we finally get to see the sun when JJ points it out. This stuck out to me in a way of representing a new chance for all of them, even if they may be promising to kill themselves in almost six weeks. It was a positive use of lighting that also captured the mood of the scene, which managed to stay light-much like most of the film. It was very much appreciated that the film did not get weighed down by the heavy subject, but was rather just a dark comedy.

I liked the movie, but I feel like it could have been taken to a whole other level if we were given a deeper look into JJ, Martin, Jess, and Maureen's pasts. In addition to that, if we spent more time developing their present stories, I feel like the movie could have taken on a deeper meaning. That is why I give this film 2 stars out of 5.