When John Allman retreats to a shack on the coast of Cyprus in “Find Me Falling,” he’s already glum. The aging rocker, portrayed by Harry Connick Jr., marches out of his new refuge with indignation and barks at a man standing on the cliff’s edge looking out at the sea. Then the man steps into the air and is gone.
It’s a surprisingly flip start to a romantic comedy that — with its intergenerational interplay and sunbaked settings — recalls “Mamma Mia!” Yet the writer-director Stelana Kliris is undaunted by, though not entirely in control of, balancing her material’s at times somber, at other times blithe, notes.
The police captain (an amiable Tony Demetriou) tells him, unceremoniously, that the promontory has become a “suicide hot spot.” More put out by this revelation than moved, John begins to build a fence. Naturally, the ramshackle barrier becomes a metaphor for his sealed-off soul.
Trying to maintain anonymity, John is dogged by mentions of his first hit: “Girl on the Beach.” After all, the beach was in Cyprus — but that girl, Sia (Agni Scott), is now a woman. Scott brings a measured mix of attraction and wariness to John’s long-ago muse, who is now referred to as the “town’s best doctor.” And Sia has her reasons for their separation.
Can a film have its own spoiler alert? In an early, easily decoded bait-and-switch, Melina (Ali Fumiko Whitney) completes a triangle as an aspiring singer and one of the first people to befriend the prickly musician.
A South African Cypriot, Kliris exudes affection for the country’s craggy terrain and its people. The film is a tourist office’s, if not quite a rom-com lover’s, dream.
Find Me Falling
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. Watch on Netflix.
