‘The Falling Star’ is a visually beautiful and black comedy film that is written and directed by Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon and also the lead characters of the movie. The theme of the film incorporates parts of the film noir with references to clowning of the directors.
The plot revolves around Fiona (Fiona Gordon), a bereaved mother who doubles as a private investigator, and two characters played by Dominique Abel: A perfect cast for a fairytale turned an escaped activist-bartender Boris and his depressed mirror-image Dom, who is also Fiona’s ex-husband. After an abortive bombing, Boris goes into a fugitive state for thirty-five years; he juts gets back in the thick of it when an armless assassin arrives. For Boris’ safety Boris’ wife, Kayoko (Kaori Ito), and their friend Tim (Philippe Martz) decided to replace Dom and leaving him in the dark.
The film’s brilliant color palette and exaggerated movements, which evoke a pantomime of real life, are inspired by the works of Jacques Tati and Wes Anderson. It is a perfect mix of black humor and absurd drama which tells the audience about the life of a man who can not escape the tragedy of missing someone or something and not knowing his true self. The major theme of the film seems to be ambiguity and as the movie concludes the audience remains as ambiguous as ever.
The plot of The Falling Star is left with pessimistic undertone of the constant strife and entrapment since the characters are shown unable to escape the grim future.
Boris: Boris tries to flee from this past by using his counterpart, Dom, yet, all the same, Boris entrapped in the past. His comedy mechanism to fool the one-armed Individual called Georges goes up in smoke, nothing has changed and he is right back at square one. This informs the films theme that some aspects of one’s past cannot be changed and any attempts to run away from them are preposterous.
Fiona: Fiona starts the movie searching for a lost dog and in her quest the viewer is reminded of the phrase ‘the lost are those who lose themselves’, this is evident when Fiona’s life, which seems to gain some purpose in finding the missing dog, is exposed as empty. Finally, given the last moments of the film, the character of Fiona can be viewed as still searching for herself, all attempts to change one’s life and improve the situation becoming equally ineffective.
Dom: The character Dom, who was on the center of Boris’s plan, also remains trapped in the same vicious cycle of perceiving and experiencing bad luck and misunderstanding. His association with the plan does not lead to change or escape which he or Boris wanted or expected.
Georges (Bruno Romy): The one-armed character, Georges, insists on vengeance and is empty and unsatisfied at the end of the movie. His pursuit of justice also holds resemblance to the other characters’ endeavor to run away from his past which is equally futile.
The characters end up wasting their time and reiterating their earlier suffering, and therefore it can be said that they are trapped in a state of hopelessness. The last scenes recall the disorientation of the beginning and the loss; thus the characters, and the spectators, are left with the feeling of the absence of answer to the basic questions about existence.
