With love stories, it’s easy to fall into the same overused template – two people meet unexpectedly, spend some time together and then, separated by a chain of events, they must find their way back to each other – no matter how unrealistic it may seem.
Aylin Tezel, who directs, writes, and stars in the film, masterfully breaks away from this perpetually disappointing norm in Falling Into Place. Here, we meet two troubled souls, both on the run from their lives but with no idea where it is they are running to. In a scene both beautiful and painful, we meet Kira (Tezel) and Ian (Chris Fulton) in a pub in Skye, where they blissfully numb themselves with full pints and empty kisses before meeting each other at the end of the night. This is the beginning of raw, yet magical 36 hours they’ll spend together.
Skye seems like the perfect place to cradle the need for escape Kira and Ian are feeling. In doing so, they open up to each other with frank and sombre conversations about failed relationships, feelings of loss, and the desperate need to find answers, and themselves. Tezel and Fulton sparkle in their roles, their chemistry carefully balancing that deep, intoxicating feeling of meeting someone new, while allowing drunken vulnerability. This is where Falling Into Place differs from the usual fare: Tezel lets us see the ugliest parts from the start, instead of romanticising romance itself.
The ruggedness of Skye’s beautiful but stark landscapes invites us in. The storyline then moves on to London where, now separated, Kira and Ian must navigate being creatives in their thirties, dealing with different relationships and demons. Now a suffocating, trapped feeling envelops, in stark contrast to their time on Skye. The plot slows down to show the pain of everyday life and the awful process of slowly healing, of falling into the same old traps, though it doesn’t drag.
The magic of Falling Into Place lies in staying faithful to the mundane realities of life. We’re all damaged, some with demons on our shoulders, and it’s good to find someone to dance with to try and shake those demons off. It’s also a good, if scary, testament to the simplest truth: we’re the ones responsible for our own lives, and while it’s good to have someone to lean on, we first need to put the pieces firmly in place before we can be that steady presence for someone else.
Falling Into Place is out on 6th June
