Four lost souls - a disgraced TV presenter, a foul-mouthed teen, an isolated single mother and a solipsistic muso - decide to end their lives on the same night, New Year's Eve. When this disillusioned quartet of strangers meet unintentionally at the same suicide hotspot, a London high-rise with the well-earned nickname Topper's Tower, they mutually agree to call off their plans for six weeks, forming an unconventional, dysfunctional family, becoming media sensations as the Topper House Four and searching together for the reasons to keep on living.
A Long Way Down has an intriguing premise, unfortunately it is watered down into a schmaltzy cop-out that’s seldom as funny or as moving as it should be.
Suicide never feels like a reality; it’s a plot device at best here, and not for a single moment do you believe any of these people are truly desperate, with the exception of one raw, genuinely affecting moment from J.J. that comes too late.
Overall, this film never quite comes together into something meaningful and the tone and the execution fall flat ...
A LONG WAY DOWN, PASCAL CHAUMEIL (2013)