Product Details

• Actors: Dylan Baker, Stacie Bono, Timothy Hutton, Sharon Stone, Pruitt Taylor Vince
• Directors: Ryan Eslinger
• Writers: Ryan Eslinger
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Screen Media
• DVD Release Date: February 5, 2008
• Run Time: 86 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000XT1P5M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,899 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "When a Man Falls" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Though marketed as a Sharon Stone thriller, this solemn chamber piece revolves around three men. One evening at work, Gary (Timothy Hutton in ever-present baseball cap) runs into night janitor Bill (Dylan Baker in oversized spectacles). Gary and Travis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) used to tease Bill, a classical-music enthusiast, in high school. The encounter spurs Gary to reconnect with Travis, with whom he lost touch after the latter was involved in an automobile accident (for which he blames himself). Together, they drink and commiserate over their lonely lives; meanwhile, Gary's neglected wife, Karen (an uncharacteristically disheveled Stone), takes to sulking and shoplifting. Bill becomes preoccupied with his pretty neighbor, Sadie (Stacie Bono), and her abusive relationship (in his dreams, Bill saves Sadie from her attacker). A senseless tragedy forces these isolated individuals to face their fears once and for all. Originally known as When a Man Falls in the Forest, then When a Man Falls, the follow-up to Ryan Eslinger’s Madness and Genius moves too slowly to generate suspense, while the characters lack sufficient development for their catharsis to have the desired impact. (An absence of personal touches, like portraits and mementos, contributes an air of artifice.) Despite their efforts, this leaves the actors stranded at times, particularly Baker, whose Bill is too bizarre to inspire much sympathy. Of the leads, Vince makes the best impression--would that Eslinger had concentrated more of the story on his character. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

When a lonely housewife (Emmy winner Sharon Stone) faces the reality of her dying marriage to Gary (Timothy Hutton), she seeks comfort in highly unlawful and forbidden activities. While Gary takes to drinking away his troubles, he doesn't realize that things are falling apart around him— until it's too late. When a Man Falls is a gripping psychological thriller sure to keep you guessing until the end!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disintegration of lives loosely connected, February 16, 2008

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When a Man Falls (DVD)

The original title of this bleak flim - WHEN A MAN FALLS IN THE FOREST - was inexplicably shortened to the nebulous WHEN A MAN FALLS for the release of the DVD: had the original title been retained, the audience may have been given a clue as to the intended message of the story. This is the second film for 26-year old writer/director Ryan Eslinger and it does suggest that he wants to deal with some existential material, but he has a way to grow into how to make it happen.

The lives of three men and a woman are interconnected in the all too common shallow 'relationships' that are a major problem in how our society is working. Bill (Dylan Baker) is a night janitor in a large company, a man who shuts out the boring world with his earphones connected to the great opera classics: he avoids people including those who saunter past him and those whose chaotic lives in the next door apartment distress him. Gary Fields (Timothy Hutton) is a down and out professional man who works in the building that Bill nocturnally keeps tidy, the two 'old high school acquaintances' meeting only because Gary has taken to sleeping in the office. Gary's wife Karen (Sharon Stone, without makeup and looking spent and used) has lost all feeling for living, detests Gary, and finds her only joy is in shoplifting. Gary has shut himself off from old friends for reasons that seem to be related to an accident that involved is best friend Travis (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a man at odds with his own environment. The only apparent connection here is that, once Gary discovers that Bill is a night janitor, Gary and Travis feel guilty that their response to Bill in high school had been one of cruel ridicule. Each of the four main characters wanders aimlessly through a world that has become strange and vindictive and it is only a bizarre incident that throws the quartet into some semblance of meaning. Each person has fallen, but since they are in the midst of a lonely 'forest', has anyone noticed or cared?

This could be a study in personal tragedy were it done better, but despite the fine credentials of the actors, the script is so full of holes that character development suffers and what results is not unlike watching an injured bull struggling around a bullfight ring as the crowd attends to the matador et al. Sadly we just don't care about these damaged people, making connection with the film next to impossible. Maybe next film...Grady Harp, February 08

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible Movie, February 13, 2008

By 

Carol Jannetty (Southington, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When a Man Falls (DVD)

This had to be one of the worst movies that I have seen-its extremely boring and the characters are as dull as the film.
No plot to speak of and you can't tell if the Bill character is dreaming or actually awake. Please don't waste your money even on a rental

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dont waste the rental fee, February 9, 2008

By 

GOLDCYLON "GOLDCYLON" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When a Man Falls (DVD)

Don't waste your time, this is a horrible film. The plot was ridiculous, the story was dismal and drawn out. No surprises and I regret spending a dime on it for the rental fee. Hutton and Stone should have never put their names to the title.