Fallen

Year of release : 1998

Run time : 2h4min

Genre : Thriller / Crime

Cast : Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Elias Koteas, Embeth Davidtz

Detective John Hobbes, visits demonic serial k1ller Edgar Reese in jail,right before his execution. The man is speaking in tongues,and shakes his hand,almost unwilling to let go.

After he dies,his spirit enters another body,and gets out of jail.

Soon we discover this is an entity which can switch bodies at will through touch. The entity keeps on changing bodies,k1lling the previous host in the same way the host k1lled the one before.

Hobbes and his colleagues think it's a copycat.

As things progress,Hobbes finds out this happened before,in the 1960's,and he was warned about it by Reese,as he left his cell.

Pretty soon,Hobbes realizes he is the target of a demonic entity who is after him,wanting vengeance for putting him in jail,the same way he did with the 'fallen' cop of the '60's,who before falling into disgrace was an awarded officer.

 

Hobbes talks to the man's daughter and as a theologist, she tells him about the unseen world.

This is one of my favorite movies, which every time I see it, I still get submerged into the story,as it is,a movie which keeps me glued to my seat,wanting to watch and learn more about what's going on.

The movie was filmed in autumn,and the streets seemed charmed,like in Vanilla Sky,with the brown-red trees,and the pavements painted in brown leaves. Autumn is so beautiful without the gloom and rain!

The places they filmed at,the outside and the interiors,were beautiful and so peaceful;they merged so well with the iconography of the movie. The colors were warm,matching the light of the waning autumn sun,descending into winter,just like the leading character's career, and the entity's timer,heading towards the end of both. It always rained at night,we could always see the rain falling on windows, giving this cocoon,warmth vibe,of being protected from the rain,the bad,for now.

The acting was stellar,everybody,from the cameos to the leads, was perfect! I'm gonna name in that regard,Robert Joy,whom unlike the rest of the cast is not famous, and whom I've seen in other movies ,one of them being Resurrection (in which he also played a serial k1ller ),and who is,indeed, a joy to watch!

I liked the way it was directed,the visual effects.

 

The soundtrack was mostly fine,except for when the saxophone chimed in,as I felt it belonged in a romance. I like the Rolling Stones song, 'Time is on my side' which laces the movie,as the entity is obsessed with it,singing it all the time.

The movie received mixed reviews, and grossed 25.2 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 46 million.

Fallen is fore rent / sale on Amazon Video, AppleTv, Fandango at Home.

Rating : The stuff dreams are made of!