Main Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Eric Schaeffer, Ben Stiller, Elle MacPherson, James Rebhorn
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This vanity project from writer, director, and star Eric Schaeffer is a romantic comedy about a pair of New Yorkers with a suicide pact. Joe MacGonaughgill (Schaeffer) is a painter and teacher who has been spying for years on Jane (Elle Macpherson), the gorgeous woman who lives across the alley, where she can be secretly observed undressing. Joe lives with Lucy Ackerman (Sarah Jessica Parker), a psychotherapist who's also his best friend. Suffering from her own relationship troubles with her boyfriend Dick (William Sage), Lucy is reminded of a long-ago pact she made with Joe: if neither is involved in a serious relationship by her rapidly approaching 30th birthday, they will commit suicide by jumping together off the Brooklyn Bridge. Then Jane comes to a show of Joe's artwork and he musters up the courage to ask her out, while Lucy begins dating Bwick Elias (Ben Stiller), an oddball artist who paints with his body parts. Only after Jane and Bwick turn out to be major disappointments do Joe and Lucy realize that they're perfect together -- and not in the platonic sense. Struggling independent filmmaker Schaeffer convinced Parker to take the female lead in If Lucy Fell when she hailed the cab he was driving. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Joe MacGonaughgill (Eric Schaeffer) and Lucy Ackerman (Sarah Jessica Parker) are roommates and best friends living in a small Manhattan apartment. Lucy is turning thirty and her love life is embarrassingly dull. Joe on the other hand is infatuated with his neighbor (Elle Macpherson). Lucy then decides to form a death pact with Joe like they'd had back in college. If they do not both find true love by the time Lucy turns thirty, then they will both jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.
Jane (Elle Macpherson) comes to an artwork show of Joe's where Joe finally gathers up the courage to ask her out, while Lucy begins dating Bwick Elias (Ben Stiller), a weirdo artist who paints with his own body parts. Joe soon realizes that Jane isn't who he thought she ought to be. Bwick also turns out to be "no Joe" for Lucy. It is at this point that Joe and Lucy realize that they are perfect for each other.
Trivia
Struggling independent filmmaker Eric Schaeffer convinced Sarah Jessica Parker to take the female lead in If Lucy Fell when she hailed the cab he was driving.[citation needed]
Amanda Kravat and band Marry Me Jane composed the music for If Lucy Fell directed by Eric Schaeffer. Kravat later composed music for Schaeffer's second feature film, Fall.
