Falling Together is one of those Hallmark Channel movies that expects you to suspend your disbelief about the state of the world for two hours. Gone are the international conflicts, the election turmoil, the violence and corruption: this is a movie that whisks you away to a place (in this case, Pittsburgh) where people are inherently good at heart, even if it takes a few scenes for them to act like it. Ashley Williams stars as Natalie, a Florida native transplanted to Pennsylvania, whose desire to be friendly with her new neighbors in her building turns her into a self-appointed mediator when she learns they all have issues with each other. And – obviously – the building’s super who keeps telling her to butt out of people’s business realizes he wants to be all up in her business by the end. FALLING TOGETHER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot: A man and woman walk down the hallway of an apartment building in Miami Beach. The woman, Natalie (Ashley Williams), throws open the doors to a room where she’s greeted by a surprise going away party thrown in her honor. The Gist: Natalie is moving from her hometown of Miami to Pittsburgh thanks to a job opportunity at Carnegie Mellon University. Natalie is a real Pollyanna, if that reference even means anything to anyone these days. That’s to say, she only ever sees the wonderful side of everything, and her brow furrows if anyone is remotely negative or critical. Ever. About anything. When she moved out of her Miami apartment building, all the residents gathered for a surprise going-away party, but when Natalie arrived to her condo in Pittsburgh, not even one neighbor took an interest in her. This leads to her she practically throw herself onto every one of them so they know she’s moved in – she even throws a “get to meet your new neighbor chili party” that none of them come to. (Honestly, I think the problem here is that, this being Pittsburgh, she didn’t realize its customary to put French Fries on top of the food she was serving.) The problem is bigger than just Natalie though, because as it turns out, all the neighbors have beefs with each other, and they’re just kind of mean to each other all the time. The one person who lives in Natalie’s building who even bothers to talk to her is Mark (Paul Campbell), but that’s just because he’s the super and he has to. Natalie thinks Mark is especially prickly though, on account of the fact that he walked past a volunteer who was signing local folks up to participate in an Alzheimer’s walk and he declined to participate. Natalie is the type who ALWAYS has a minute for Greenpeace, and cannot wrap her head around his callousness at saying no to a random sidewalk volunteer asking him to raise money and donate his free time for this walk. (I’m obviously on Mark’s side here, Mark is all of us.) He tells Natalie is not his “thing” and from her facial expression, you can tell that, if she were the sort of person who cast spells, she’d be cursing him right about now. Mark is kinder than he initially lets on, and soon offers to show Natalie around her new city. They get to know each other and she decides that, with his help, she’s going to help all of her neighbors hash out their differences so they will get along. Pretty soon, Natalie is mediating all of their conflicts and differences, and she tries to round them up to participate in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in a show of support and solidarity for the new cause she’s picked up. Of course, nothing is perfect and it’s a bumpy road along the way, but in the end, Natalie’s presence in her new building – and in Mark’s life – makes an impression on everyone. What Shows Will It Remind You Of? There are dozens of great “opposites attract” romance movies out there, from When Harry Met Sally to Romancing The Stone to Grease – while none quite fit the exact mold of Falling Together, the one thing those all have in common is the archetypal “hopeless romantic/optimist falls for bad boy with a backstory.” Our Take: The reputation of a classic Hallmark movie is a film that’s comforting and peril-free, with easily resolved conflicts and characters who live in a quaint version of a town or city that happens to be decked out in whatever seasonally appropriate decor is available at Michael’s Crafts. Falling Together is as quintessentially Hallmark as a movie can get, with it’s perpetually autumnal decor framing every scene, and it’s positive protagonist molding everyone around her into kinder, nicer versions of themselves because, welp, the world is just nicer that way. On the one hand, Ashley Williams’s Natalie is a frustrating character, because she begins her journey completely oblivious to the fact that she’s annoying all of her new neighbors. She’s so desperate to be liked that she cannot read a room, and she acts insulted that none of her neighbors care to be as outgoing as she is. For the first third of the movie, the introvert in me had PTSD from all the people like Natalie that I’ve met that I have felt forced to make small talk with. Mark, who is quite comfortable being alone with his thoughts, teaches Natalie is that it’s just as important to make yourself happy as it is to make everyone else get along and happy. Natalie and Mark’s love story is an opposites attract romance, but fortunately, once they start to meet each other in the middle they become better versions of themselves thanks to that compromise. The plot around the Alzheimer’s walk adds an extra layer of do-goodery to the film which, at this point, you may as well pile on, because this particular film is almost a PSA on how to be kind. (The film is premiering on World Alzheimer’s Day, hence the tie-in.) A film with such a sunny outlook may not be for everyone; personally I don’t know how to function without some sarcasm and cynicism in my daily routine, so it took me time to warm to it. But if the real world that we all live in is a bubble that’s full of negativity and conflict, this film exists to pop it. Parting Shot: Mark and Natalie kiss as a flood of people participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s walk around them. Performance Worth Watching: As Mark, Paul Campbell‘s understated grumpy disposition is a necessary counter-weight to Natalie. His appeal as a leading man doesn’t come from being suave and charming, but but being someone who advocates for Natalie’s own happiness and encourages her to find it. (Sorry/Not Sorry, I’m becoming a Campbell Stan.) Memorable Dialogue: “I want to live in a place where people genuinely like and help each other!” Natalie tells Mark after realizing she lives in an apartment building full of neighbors with beef. This is not a movie about building a utopian society, but Natalie is a dreamer, a wishful thinker, and it encapsulates her whole vibe. Our Call: STREAM IT! Falling Together is a lot of things: earnest and sincere, broad and a little bit corny, optimistic and often unrealistic. It’s selling an idealized version of the world where people aspire to connect and be positive, even in the face of something like Alzheimer’s Disease, which can be upsetting and turn your world upside down. It’s certainly not edgy or high-concept, but it’s a feel-good affair that’s a reminder that some people do aspire to put good vibes into the world. Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
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