The film revolves around four strangers who planned to jump from the same roof on New Year's Eve. They are still planning to form an alternative family to help each other overcome their life's difficulties as well as continue living.
As British comedy sometimes will, "A Long Way Down" has an occasional attack of the cutes, but the actors' commitment keeps the movie on the plus side.
Surf frolic! Group hug! Bonding! Brosnan was a low-on-the-totem-pole James Bond, but we'll take that Bond over this bonding. Brosnan meanders insincerely through the material.
There are moments of tenderness and honest human emotion buried in the frustrating "A Long Way Down" but one has to work far too hard and give far too much credit to the over-qualified cast to grab at them.
"A Long Way Down" doesn't bother to explore its characters on any substantial level and comes close to offending in how flippant the whole thing is to the subject of suicide.
Author Nick Hornby establishes a tone of sentimental black humor, and director Pascal Chaumeil orchestrates the encounter as the formation of rag-tag band where each player gets a stirring solo number.
I enjoyed it, and I find myself hanging onto it, but mostly because of the interesting combination of its cast members, and the way they communally grapple with hopelessness.
The movie criminally wastes Sam Neill and Rosamund Pike in barely there supporting roles, and the picture has exactly two tones: grim and gooey. They do not coexist harmoniously.
