The Fall review: an intense meditation on the life of a jockey taking a kicking

The first thing to say about The Fall is it is a film about horseracing which feels accurate and authentic in every detail. Over the years, racing fans have become wearily aware this is harder to achieve than one would expect, the myriad stumbling blocks ranging from cringe-inducing dialogue to the presence of spikes along the inside rail, for the villainous jockey to impale himself upon in the final act.

But great care has been taken to make The Fall feel real. One might almost say that love has been lavished upon it by its creators, led by the ex-jockey Nathan Horrocks, now having a happier second life as a producer, writer and director. But its central character, a jockey taking a stiff kicking from almost everybody, is not feeling the love.

Just three characters have most of the lines in this intense slice of drama, lean and taut as a jockey's frame, which will get its first airing on Sky Sports Racing at 10pm on Thursday. All the performances are absorbing but as effective as any of them in a very few seconds on screen is the valet Chris Maude, instantly recognisable to anyone who followed the career of Young Hustler, a regular mount of his 30 years ago.

Chris Maude: former jockey turned valet is instantly recognisableCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Just as in real life, Maude's role here is as a kind of armourer, equipping riders for battle, meeting them on their return, by which time several have taken damage of some kind, and spotting what they'll need before they go back out for the next skirmish. Surrounded by underfed, dehydrated youngsters on their own, unseen emotional rollercoasters, he aims to be a levelling influence with his veteran's stoicism.

He throws a word of praise to a winning jockey, nothing calculated to grate on the nerves of the less fortunate. We see the closeness between him and one struggling rider as he ties on a cap, applies a safety pin to a collar under the jockey's throat.

"There, you're all set. You okay?" A brisk, manly thump to the chest. "You know what this game's like. You know what to do about it."

Gazing up at him is the actor Daniel Thrace, practically a stranger to racing until being hired for The Fall but a really tremendous piece of casting because, as Horrocks has noted, he looks and moves in that curiously unique manner that can only be described as being "like a jockey". In the scene with Maude, he could be Kieren Fallon at his most troubled, somehow expressing both hardy insolence and appalling vulnerability.

It is, of course, Thrace who takes the titular tumble, although The Fall refers to more than just a racecourse incident in a film which bears repeated viewing and reflection on the significance of some details only hinted at. It happens in a race he would otherwise have won, leading to tension between him and literally everyone else, from the person closest to him to complete strangers messaging him through social media and more directly in one case, having evidently got hold of his phone number.

Thrace's journey home becomes the most difficult ride of his life. Will he, as they say, come back in one piece?

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The Fall is a meditation on the lives which, logically, most jockeys must lead, with successes proving hard to come by and youthful hope eventually dying the death of a thousand cuts. It acknowledges the superficial appeal of such a life, as the well-dressed Thrace climbs into his smart car and drives towards a comfortable house.

But it spends much more time showing us the cost of that life, the burdens constantly borne and threatening to grind it out of existence. It asks us to consider the way we relate to those who are living like this in order to provide our entertainment. Although Thrace's character is invented, the abusive messages he receives were all sent to a real person in apparent earnest.

We might reasonably have concerns for the mental health of those sending the messages as well, of course. Someone should make a film exploring the bitterness and compensations of being a punter. With his thoughtfulness and deep concern, Horrocks could be the right person for that job too.

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