The Fall (2006) Review

Tarsem Singh, who prefers just Tarsem, previously made a name for himself in 2000 with his polarizing feature film debut The Cell. It seems that between then and now he has been making numerous commercials and music videos in an effort to finance his dream picture, The Fall. And “dream” couldn’t be a more apt adjective to describe his latest film. Boasting incredible cinematography, majestic sets and costumes, and shot in 28 locations all over the world, The Fall is undoubtedly a visual feast and the epitome of “dream”-like.

The basic plot concerns a young girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) who is staying in a hospital in Los Angeles after a nasty fall in an orange grove has delivered her a broken arm. Exploring the hospital grounds, she soon comes across a stuntman named Roy (Lee Pace) holed up in a room after a fall of his own has left him with a pair of broken legs. Though at first wary of Roy, Alexandria quickly warms to his charm and he begins to tell her an epic yarn about five colorful bandits on an Odyssean quest to kill the evil governor who has wronged them.

The story Roy tells is brought to life with wonderful, and often humorous, live-action sequences in which patients and staff from the hospital appear as veiled variations of themselves. The story progresses and becomes increasingly fantastic, aided in part by Roy’s agitated state and in part by Alexandria’s imaginative contributions. What began as a simple fable is soon a collaboration, and sometimes a battle, between the two to discover the fates of the characters and the world that they have created. If The Fall sometimes resembles a fairy tale, this is a Brothers Grimm tale rather than a Disney one - Roy is not interested in happy endings.

Also like a fairy tale, the story’s moral and its conclusion are somewhat rudimentary, and some critics claim that this unoriginality devalues the film as a whole. Instead, I found that the picture’s simple nature gave it a visceral sort of power. Hidden within the whimsy and beauty we confront sadness, paranoia and a very human struggle to find meaning - universal sentiments that transcend any originality the plot might lack.

The other star of the show, after the vast imaginativeness of the images on display, is the persistent appeal of the girl Alexandria. Played by first-time actor Catinca Untaru, she is so sweet and so real that you can’t help being drawn in by her performance. It is not the saccharine, well-rehearsed cuteness that we are used to with say, someone like Dakota Fanning, but reflects the effortless way in which a child is naturally cute and amusing. So effortless in fact, that at first I was sure that her lines were improvised. Further research reveals that much of the actor’s verisimilitude of innocence derives from the fact that she did not know how to speak English at all. She learned her lines by heart. You wouldn’t know it though, as she stutters, smiles and rubs her nose as she speaks, as if the camera isn’t there, gracefully endearing herself.

Tarsem has created an eccentric and extravagant world, not unlike one from the imagination of Terry Gilliam or maybe Julie Taymor, where suspension of disbelief is created through an unrelenting richness in detail. And as with those indulgent directors, I suspect either you buy into Tarsem’s fantasy or you don’t. But if you manage to let your imagination go, don’t be surprised to find yourself spellbound by the world of The Fall.

One of the best films I’ve seen this year.