The Fall (B- or 3/4 stars)
Los Angeles, 1915, or so: A 5 yr. old immigrant girl, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), is recovering from a fall in a half-empty hospital. Bereft, she strikes up a friendship with a bedridden, injured stuntman named Roy (Lee Pace). After their initial greeting, he tells her a story about 5 mythical heroes. But because he's also a bit mentally unstable, his bizarre tale, mixed with her vivid imagination, creates an exotic visual & emotional experience for us to behold. Eventually, the lines btwn. reality & fiction blurs, & some scary consequences take hold of our protagonists ... both in the story & in real life. It took a while to win me over. But 'The Fall', directed by Tarsem (The Cell), does just that by creating its OWN brand of fantasy.
Roy, injured in the line of duty (from an early Hollywood production), is content to befriend Alexandria. For the while, it keeps his depression at bay (possible paralyzation, a break-up with his girlfriend). The story he tells her is a tale of 5 buccaneers on a quest to kill the malevolent Governor Odious. The leader of this group, The Masked Bandit (Pace, once again), guides his team through a series of perils, including taking a princess captive en route to the blue city that surrounds Odious' domain. The other members of this team include an Indian (he means a Native American, she envisions one from India), an escaped African slave, a bomb-making Italian, & Charles Darwin (with his pet monkey in tow).
Gov. Odious strands them on a desert island, but they make it to shore by way of a huge swimming elephant! The descriptions we hear & the visions we see (in Alexandria's head) make for a beautiful 1st half an hour. But darkness creeps in to the plot as Roy tells his story for a personal motive. Discovering how cute, intelligent, but sly she can be, he persuades Alexandria to steal a bottle of morphine pills from the dispensary. She sees the 'e' at the end of morphine as a '3', and looks for such a bottle, accordingly. She has no idea that his request signifies his desire to kill himself later that night. The telling of his whimsical story continues, but as his demeanor darkens, so does the story. Poor Alexandria is forced to endure listening to an increasingly horrifying tale, & we see these horrors as she sees them. Can Alexandria change Roy's mind? Does she even realize what he intends to do? How will his story end?
I can't lie and say that I loved 'The Fall' from beginning to end; far from it. In fact, had it not been for the stirring final 45 minutes or so, I could see myself dismissing the entire movie as hollow; or pretentious faux-art. The dramatic shape/tonal consistency doesn't take form til after the half way mark. And I was getting quite anxious. But it 'does' save itself in the end, thus, negating most of the issues I had with it earlier on. One of the best aspects of this film is watching (literally) Alexandria's story change as Roy tells it with an increasingly dark mood. We see the whole process. And it's interesting that the characters in his story are represented by individuals in Alexandria's everyday life; whether at home, or in the hospital (think The Wizard of Oz).
Another strength of the film is its use of transporting imagery. Alexandria's imagination is fleshed out onscreen. So not only do we witness eclectic characters in beautiful costumes; but we see wondrous things such as ... the swimming elephant, a blue city, and a labyrinthine structure in which stairs go downwards, not upwards, etc. The cinematography, art design, & costumes are simply magical. Roy tells an adventurous, but grim tale; maybe one that a 5 yr. old shouldn't hear. But it's his tale, plus Alexandria's imagining of it that creates this new world for us to see.
Lee Pace is stellar as the charming, but self-loathing Roy/Masked Bandit. But his task is made easy by feeding off of his brilliant, naturalistic young co-star, Catinca Untaru. In the critical climactic scene of the movie, Alexandria begs & pleads for Roy/Masked Bandit to not give up, to continue the story, to not go down the dark path. It's one of those cinematic moments where your heart is pounding & your tear ducts are working hard to suppress the wellspring of emotions. The fantasy story sequences are exquisitely beautiful, but emotionally remote ... almost like still pictures. That they occupy a good length of the movie is a real test of viewer patience/endurance. And if it weren't for the strength of the Roy/Alexandria characters, this movie would have failed miserably. Still, overall, 'The Fall' is a small, sentimental celebration of movies, of storytelling, of spectacle, and of saving each other from morbid fates. Strange movie … but a good strange.
Roy, injured in the line of duty (from an early Hollywood production), is content to befriend Alexandria. For the while, it keeps his depression at bay (possible paralyzation, a break-up with his girlfriend). The story he tells her is a tale of 5 buccaneers on a quest to kill the malevolent Governor Odious. The leader of this group, The Masked Bandit (Pace, once again), guides his team through a series of perils, including taking a princess captive en route to the blue city that surrounds Odious' domain. The other members of this team include an Indian (he means a Native American, she envisions one from India), an escaped African slave, a bomb-making Italian, & Charles Darwin (with his pet monkey in tow).
Gov. Odious strands them on a desert island, but they make it to shore by way of a huge swimming elephant! The descriptions we hear & the visions we see (in Alexandria's head) make for a beautiful 1st half an hour. But darkness creeps in to the plot as Roy tells his story for a personal motive. Discovering how cute, intelligent, but sly she can be, he persuades Alexandria to steal a bottle of morphine pills from the dispensary. She sees the 'e' at the end of morphine as a '3', and looks for such a bottle, accordingly. She has no idea that his request signifies his desire to kill himself later that night. The telling of his whimsical story continues, but as his demeanor darkens, so does the story. Poor Alexandria is forced to endure listening to an increasingly horrifying tale, & we see these horrors as she sees them. Can Alexandria change Roy's mind? Does she even realize what he intends to do? How will his story end?
I can't lie and say that I loved 'The Fall' from beginning to end; far from it. In fact, had it not been for the stirring final 45 minutes or so, I could see myself dismissing the entire movie as hollow; or pretentious faux-art. The dramatic shape/tonal consistency doesn't take form til after the half way mark. And I was getting quite anxious. But it 'does' save itself in the end, thus, negating most of the issues I had with it earlier on. One of the best aspects of this film is watching (literally) Alexandria's story change as Roy tells it with an increasingly dark mood. We see the whole process. And it's interesting that the characters in his story are represented by individuals in Alexandria's everyday life; whether at home, or in the hospital (think The Wizard of Oz).
Another strength of the film is its use of transporting imagery. Alexandria's imagination is fleshed out onscreen. So not only do we witness eclectic characters in beautiful costumes; but we see wondrous things such as ... the swimming elephant, a blue city, and a labyrinthine structure in which stairs go downwards, not upwards, etc. The cinematography, art design, & costumes are simply magical. Roy tells an adventurous, but grim tale; maybe one that a 5 yr. old shouldn't hear. But it's his tale, plus Alexandria's imagining of it that creates this new world for us to see.
Lee Pace is stellar as the charming, but self-loathing Roy/Masked Bandit. But his task is made easy by feeding off of his brilliant, naturalistic young co-star, Catinca Untaru. In the critical climactic scene of the movie, Alexandria begs & pleads for Roy/Masked Bandit to not give up, to continue the story, to not go down the dark path. It's one of those cinematic moments where your heart is pounding & your tear ducts are working hard to suppress the wellspring of emotions. The fantasy story sequences are exquisitely beautiful, but emotionally remote ... almost like still pictures. That they occupy a good length of the movie is a real test of viewer patience/endurance. And if it weren't for the strength of the Roy/Alexandria characters, this movie would have failed miserably. Still, overall, 'The Fall' is a small, sentimental celebration of movies, of storytelling, of spectacle, and of saving each other from morbid fates. Strange movie … but a good strange.