"The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling" Review: To be or not to be afraid

“The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling” is a 2011 short film written and directed by Joseph Wallace.

Plot (SPOILERS)
In a tall city apartment building lives an elderly man named Ivor. One day while placing another pot of flowers on his cluttered window sill he sees the pot fall down and break. He then imagines himself being the one to fall down the tall building and decides to take precautionary measures. He moves out of the city and into a two-story townhouse. As he begins to take some of his things upstairs, however, a book falls from his arms and tumbles down the stairs. Ivor again imagines himself meeting the same fate and decides to move once more, this time into a small one-story house in the outskirts of town.

As he begins to settle in, a series of troubling events occur. First, he bumps into a box and drops the teapot he was holding. He looks at the broken pieces on the floor and carefully backs into a chair. When he sits down the chair wobbles back against the wall and causes his framed pictures to fall and break. Ivor looks distressed as he slowly backs away through the front door, not watching the extra step behind him. He stumbles backwards and finally falls.

Ivor stays still on the grass with his eyes closed shut and his arms around himself. After a few seconds he opens his eyes and sits up- still intact. He looks around at the red, orange, yellow, and white flowers surrounding him. After taking in the moment he grabs the pot of flowers from his porch, takes off the tape holding the broken pieces together, and plants them amongst the other flowers. He then rises from the ground and smiles as he looks onto the horizon.

Let’s Talk About It
Symbolism aside, I think being afraid to fall is a legitimate fear, especially for elderly people. Since our bones lose mechanical integrity as we age, falling could result in irreparable damage. We can also view falling as any event that could cause us harm or pain. I think taking reasonable measures to prevent such events are justified. This is why I don’t blame Ivor for wanting to be careful.

Unfortunately, Ivor wasn’t being cautious- he was being paranoid. I found it unreasonable for him to move from place to place in order to avoid falling although I understand why he did it. This approach seemed to me like he was running away from his fear which I don’t think was the right solution. The issue, however, comes in drawing the line between what is reasonable and unreasonable.

How can we tell when our fears have gotten the best of us? This is a difficult question to answer, but I think in Ivor’s case his paranoia peaked right before he fell. There were no stairs or windows around, only himself- the one thing he couldn’t run away from.

When he finally did fall, something amazing happened: nothing! He grew so irrationally afraid of falling that when he did he seemed surprised to have survived. I think we’re all guilty of blowing our fears out of proportion and, after confronting them, realizing they aren’t as scary as we thought. I’m glad we saw Ivor rise after falling. It shows he grew stronger from the experience, just as the planted flowers will too.

My Critique
This short film was one of the shorter ones I’ve seen with the story ending at about four minutes. Along with this easy time length, the animation had a simple, to the point art style and delivered an inspiring message about overcoming our fears to enjoy life.

The character had minimal facial expressions, with changes made only to his eyes and mustache, but it was enough to convey what he was feeling and bring him to life. The settings were very simple with few props which helped draw attention to the character, and the music was in perfect synchrony with the storyline. And like in many short films, stop motion animation did a great job with connecting this story to reality and therefore making the character and his dilemma easily relatable.

My key takeaway from this short: It’s OK to be afraid to fall, just be ready to pick yourself back up when you do.


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