2654. Fallen From Heaven (2016)

Starring: Muriel Santa Ana, Peto Menahem, Héctor Díaz

Director: Néstor Sánchez Sotelo

Running Time: 75 mins

Fallen From Heaven (Caída del cielo) is an Argentinian film about the unlikely relationship that unfolds between two neighbours after a woman falls into a man’s garden from the rooftop.

Short and sweet, it’s difficult not to like Fallen From Heaven, and although it never really offers up the emotional power that it aims to, it succeeds with a pleasantly offbeat vibe and two likable key performances.

Now, if you’re averse to quirky, cutesy romances that bring together two souls destined to be with one another, then I can’t say that you’ll love Fallen From Heaven. However, beyond that fairly sappy story, there’s a relaxed, calm likability to this film, and running for such a short duration too, it’s simply a pleasant and easy-going watch, whether or not you really fall for the romance in the same way the characters do.

Combine that with two lead performances from Muriel Santa Ana and Peto Menahem, and you’ve got a film that has a lot of fun with being quirky and offbeat, avoiding the often pretentious and showy quirkiness of many independent comedies in exchange for something that feels a lot more genuine.

I can’t say that Fallen From Heaven does much to make those characters particularly riveting or multidimensional, but the offbeat chemistry between Santa Ana and Menahem is more than enough to endear you to their relationship, even if it doesn’t quite go far enough to engross you in its deeper emotional themes.

The film isn’t just throwaway, fluffy cinema, because it tries to introduce more interesting and thought-provoking ideas about the balance of a relationship, and the importance of human connection in face of the spectre of isolation and depression.

However, in the midst of such a pleasant and sweet movie, it’s difficult to really engage with some of those more complex ideas, something made even harder by writing that isn’t particularly stellar, as well as a runtime that just isn’t long enough to flesh out the film’s valuable but more meaty ideas.

So, while Fallen From Heaven is certainly a pleasant and easy-going movie, it struggles to engross you in anything beyond that. With nice performances and offbeat, quirky humour and romance, it’s a passable and often very likable watch, but not one that will really impress you at any point, and that’s why I’m giving it a 7.1 overall.