A Long Way Down

To jump or not to jump – that is the question: four suicidal people meet on the roof of a London high rise on New Year’s Eve. Four different generations, four different backgrounds and four different reasons for ending it all. There’s Martin Sharp, an over-the-hill talk show host and ex-womanizer with an alcohol addiction; Maureen, a housewife on the verge of collapse after years of taking care of her severely disabled son; failed rock musician JJ; and, youngest of them all, lovesick but rebellious Jess. During the course of a tumultuous night, they each tell the story of their lives and woes and finally make a pact not to kill themselves before Valentine’s Day. This means another six weeks during which they all have somehow to stay alive.
Director Pascal Chaumeil’s screen adaptation of Nick Hornby’s bestselling novel ‘A Long Way Down’ captures his protagonists’ loneliness and desperation by portraying the unpredictable dynamics of an alliance of necessity. The film’s tragic and comic aspects derive from the originality of its characters as, along with them, we discover some unexpected answers to the big and small questions posed by life.