Falling Over Backwards

1990 Canadian film

August 23, 1990 (1990-08-23) (MWFF)

Running time

100 minutesCountryCanadaLanguageEnglish

Falling Over Backwards is a Canadian comedy film, directed by Mort Ransen and released in 1990.^[1]

Plot

The film stars Saul Rubinek as Mel Rosenblum, a newly divorced schoolteacher suffering a mid-life crisis, who decides to reconstruct the happier times in his life by engineering the reunion of his divorced parents Harvey (Paul Soles) and Rose (Helen Hughes).^[2] Meanwhile, Mel himself is drawn into a nascent relationship with Jackie (Julie Saint-Pierre), his landlady, which is complicated when Jackie discovers that she is pregnant by her previous boyfriend and considers having an abortion.^[3]

Cast

Saul Rubinek as Mel Rosenblum
Paul Soles as Harvey Rosenblum
Julie Saint-Pierre as Jackie
Helen Hughes as Rose Rosenblum
Vlasta Vrána as Drunk
Harry Standjofski as Club Manager
Aidan Devine as Young Man

Reception

The film was compared by critics to a Jewish version of a Michel Tremblay play.^[4] Ransen described it as the film that led to his decision to leave the National Film Board to work as an independent director, as he could not imagine the board approving the project.^[5]

The film received two Genie Award nominations at the 12th Genie Awards in 1991, for Best Supporting Actor (Soles) and Best Sound Editing (Gudrun Christian, Andy Malcolm, Michelle Cooke, Abby Jack Neidik and Diane Le Floch).

References

^ "Director Ransen's film grim yet still playful". Halifax Daily News, April 9, 1991.
^ "Set in Montreal, Falling Over Backwards is honest little film". Montreal Gazette, August 28, 1990.
^ "Romantic comedy ends poorly". Calgary Herald, March 14, 1991.
^ "Feel-good film examines the feel-awful '90s; Montreal director, cast bent over backwards to make Falling Over Backwards". Edmonton Journal, April 10, 1991.
^ "Director finds vision on Plateau; Montrealer realizes dream of making feel-good '50s flick with feel-bad problems of '90s". Montreal Gazette, April 5, 1991.