Fall for Me Review: Svenja Jung’s Magnetic Presence isn’t Enough to Overcome This Uneven Netflix Erotic Thriller
On paper, the German-language erotic thriller Fall for Me has a lot going for it—a mix of mystery with a dash of erotica shot on the picturesque location of Mallorca in Spain. The movie begins with Lilli Funke (a stunning Svenja Jung), who works as an auditor, arriving in Mallorca to visit her younger sister Valeria (Tijan Marei). She finds out that Valeria is engaged to Manu (Victor Meutelet), a man she had only met a few months ago. Lilli also learns that Valeria and Manu are planning to buy a finca to convert the place into a bed and breakfast. She feels something is not right about Valeria moving up too fast for her own good.
On the night when Lilli, Valeria and Manu are partying at a club, the former meets Tom (Theo Trebs), a handsome bartender who also turns out to be the manager, trying to flirt with her. She doesn’t give in at first, but eventually can’t resist Theo’s charm. It doesn’t take long before their first encounter leads to a sexual tease filmed in a music video-like style, complete with a snippet of a song playing in the background. Their tryst marks the beginning of Lilli and Tom’s steamy relationship.
From there, Lilli is surprised to find that Tom happens to be her next-door neighbour following an incident with a burst pipe near her garden. The story then sees her and Tom flirting and engaging in a few sexual occasions, with one of them straight out of 9 1/2 Weeks-like carnal pleasure. From someone as level-headed and supposedly astute as Lilli, she is ultimately blinded by Tom’s irresistible appeal, not knowing the latter’s been using her all this time.
Frankly, it’s hardly a spoiler territory here since one could easily smell the scamming in motion right from the beginning. As the movie progresses, Lilli becomes more suspicious about Manu’s hidden motivation, namely learning about his angry ex-girlfriend’s existence (Antje Traue’s Bea). Except that the naive Valeria remains oblivious even with all the obvious warning signs. I guess the filmmaker here wanted to pinpoint that love sure makes one blind to having rational thoughts.
Fall for Me runs at a reasonable 103 minutes, and yet, the movie suffers from an erratic pace. A thriller about how the elaborate scam is set to lure both Lilli and Valeria into a trap should have been both sneaky and deceptive in its storytelling. But director Sherry Hormann, working from Stefanie Sycholt’s screenplay, often stalls the momentum even when the so-called plot thickens and the truth eventually reveals itself in the open. The sex scenes are pretty much a hit-and-miss affair, despite Hormann’s effort in framing them in a fairly titillating, R-rated territory.
Jung and Trebs are both attractive couple, and they look good together on-screen. They try their best with the otherwise underwritten roles given to them, but the two’s much-needed chemistry doesn’t exactly level up beyond their flirtatious encounter. The rest of the actors are simply forgettable, particularly the introductions of Nick and Garisol, played by Thomas Kretschmann and Lucía Barrado as the husband-and-wife team responsible for masterminding the scamming operation. The latter two could have used a substantial angle in their antagonist turns rather than just relegating them to perfunctory stereotypes.
Marc Achenbach’s lush cinematography, in the meantime, deserves mention here for capturing the rustic beauty of the Mallorca landscape. It’s a pity that Fall for Me misses most of the opportunity to elevate its storytelling potential, especially with the added sumptuous visuals and Svenja Jung’s magnetic presence leading the role.
Fall for Me is currently streaming on Netflix.
