 Filmed over a period of 4 years in 18 different countries. Tarsem's The Fall is an unforgettable movie experience. In 1920 Los Angeles, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), a 5 year old girl hospitalized from a fall, strikes up an unlikely friendship with Roy (Lee Pace, TV's Pushing Daisies), a Hollywood stuntman shattered by a near fatal movie set accident and his lover's betrayal. To pass the time, he tells Alexandria the epic story of Governor Odious and the 5 remarkable heroes determined to defeat him - a dazzling world of magic and myth. Only when the line between reality and fantasy begins to dissolve does Alexandria realize how much is truly at stake. Presented by David Fincher (Fight Club) and Spike Jonze (Adaptation), The Fall is an awe-inspiring, cinematic tour de force. Storyline: At a Los Angeles hospital in the 1920s, Alexandria is a child recovering from a broken arm. She befriends Roy Walker, a movie stunt man with legs paralyzed after a fall. At her request, Roy tells her an elaborate story about six men of widely varied backgrounds who are on a quest to kill a corrupt provincial governor. Between chapters of the story, Roy inveigles Alexandria to scout the hospital's pharmacy for morphine. As Roy's fantastic tale nears its end, Death seems close at hand. Written by Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Lindsay Mayer, September 9, 2008 The flamboyant visual style of The Fall seems par for the course for a director like Tarsem Singh. Finding success right out of film school with his 1991 music video for alternative rock group R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion," the Indian filmmaker enjoyed a decade of commercial projects thereafter. He developed a signature style with a highly operatic flair, full of Technicolor hues and outlandish costume design. He also became known for eschewing the use of computer generated effects, which ironically seem to lend his productions an even greater level of surrealism. Tarsem later broke into mainstream feature film direction with The Cell, a bizarre thriller that never saw box office success, but did develop a cult following rather rapidly. Throughout his many assignments, the director enjoyed a substantial amount of income. So much, in fact, that he was able to finance the production of his new feature film himself. An adaptation of the screenplay for the 1981 Bulgarian film, Yo ho ho, Tarsem's pet project, titled The Fall, was a time-consuming undertaking that spanned four years. Piggybacking on Tarsem's commercial film shoots, the breathtaking exterior footage was pieced together from 18 countries and multiple locations. The result is a deceptively seamless feature that, despite its dashing good looks, contains an engaging story and superb acting. Set in a quaint imagining of 1920s Los Angeles, The Fall tells the story of two "stuck-for-the-duration" characters; the first is Alexandria, a little Romanian girl (played by wide-eyed newcomer Catinca Untaru) who suffered a fall while harvesting in a commercial orange grove with her immigrant family, breaking her left arm in the process. The other is Roy, a Hollywood stuntman who also suffered a fall from a train bridge, nearly paralyzing himself in the process. To make matters worse, his girlfriend has run off with the film's leading man. Bereft and bedridden, Roy chances across a curious Alexandria, and enchants her with exotic tales of far-off lands and five heroes with a common enemy. Held together by their mutual hatred, the five men - the ex-slave Ota Benga, the nameless Indian, the Italian explosives expert Luigi, the British naturalist Charles Darwin, and the mysterious Masked Bandit seek revenge upon the ruthless Governor Odious. Aided by a fickle shaman, their quest is the subject of Roy's tale. Though Alexandria has a tenuous grasp on English, her imagination is as vivid and boundless as any 5-year-old, and the story whimsically changes at the caprices of the storyteller and the desires of his rapt young listener. For example, the Masked Bandit is initially a Spaniard, then switches to Californian, then French, in a matter of seconds. Another charming detail is Roy's vision of the Indian - he speaks of a man living in a wigwam with a beautiful "squaw," yet Alexandria envisions an individual clad in emerald green from a tropical realm of elephants and ornate palaces. The injured girl is mesmerized by Roy's tale, but the stuntman is in fact severely depressed. For him, life is no longer worth living, and he spins such fantastic yarns for Alexandria because he aims to gain her trust and requests her to fetch a bottle of morphine from the hospital's pharmaceutical storage, intending to overdose and kill himself. Circumstances prevent Roy from succeeding however, and in Alexandria's second pilfering attempt, she falls from the high counter and compounds her existing injuries. Roy now feels extremely guilty on top of his other pain, and endangers the fate of his story's characters - and his responsibility to Alexandria's well-being - in the process. Whether the film has a tragic ending or not can only be determined if, well - if the dear reader chooses to see this cinematic gem! A fabulous film replete with dazzling imagery and whimsical touches - even Charles Darwin is bedecked in a furry red coat and accompanied by an intelligent pet monkey named Wallace - The Fall is an excellent choice for high definition, and I for one am only too glad that Sony Pictures elected to give this relatively known film the Blu-ray treatment. A spectacle in every sense, The Fall's wild visual composition does not compensate for a lack of substance - to the contrary, the plot is delicately told and features authentic performances from the cast. This especially applies to Untaru, who truly did not know English at the production's outset and lacks the annoyingly polished cutesiness of most Hollywood child actors. Combined with a lovely visual and aural presentation on Blu-ray Disc, The Fall is quite highly recommended in all! IMDb Rating (02/11/17): 7.9/10 from 91,510 users
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