Free Fall

Free Fall (2013) came out of Germany and was compared to Brokeback Mountain on release. The comparison is not superficial. This is also about a man who cannot admit who he is without losing everything he has built. Marc is at police academy, his girlfriend is pregnant, and they have just moved in with his parents. Everything is on schedule. Then he starts running with a colleague named Kay and what develops between them goes somewhere neither of them controls. The strength of the film is its setting. A police academy, communal showers, male solidarity, and the homophobia sitting directly underneath that solidarity. What Marc is afraid of is not abstract. It stands next to him every day. Hanno Koffler and Max Riemelt are convincing together. Koffler does not try to make Marc sympathetic. He is often cowardly and often selfish, and the film does not correct him. The final section is abrupt and some viewers found it unfinished. A sequel exists and is weaker. Good for: German cinema, LGBT drama, and stories about double lives. Less good for: there is homophobic violence and infidelity. Not one for anyone hoping for a happy ending.