Director and co-writer Tarsem’s The Fall, the follow-up to the visually resplendent Jennifer Lopez thriller The Cell, is one of the year’s best films you probably haven’t seen. Filmed in 18 different countries over a four year period, this audaciously constructed and paced gothic fairy tale of friendship and loss is as engrossing as it is wonderful. It is a story of intense drama, stirring action and heartbreaking emotion, all of it stimulated by the actions of a five-year-old child whose limitless curiosities can’t help but inspire.
Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) is the young daughter of immigrant migrant farmers working the fields in 1915 Los Angeles. After she breaks her arm in a fall during a tragic accident, she finds herself wandering the halls of a secluded hospital looking for things to do. It is here she meets bedridden movie stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace), also the victim of a horrific fall leaving him without the use of his legs.
For reasons known only to him, Roy befriends Alexandria and starts telling her a magnificent tale of daring-do and heroism set in the mystical deserts of India. But this story is only a pretext to the man’s actual, much darker motives, and against the backdrop of evil magistrates, malevolent blood-thirsty armies, beautiful ruby-lipped princesses and mysterious masked avengers looking to right numerous wrongs a single bottle of morphine is all that stands between an unlikely friendship and a devastating catastrophe.
Much like Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 Oscar-winning gothic fairy tale Pan’s Labyrinth, The Fall is a boldly daring stunner with far more on its mind then a cursory glance can hint at. Simply put, the picture is a triumph, and I would guess as far as Tarsem is concerned there can be no better vindication than that.
Granted, thanks to the fractured multi-year kamikaze filming style this independent production required, there is a herky-jerky quality to it all that is sometimes distracting. Also, as grandiose as the themes inside it become they never quite reach that heartbreakingly rapturous crescendo del Toro’s instantly classic epic rises to. The final moments are great even if unable to make the final leap to timelessness.
Yet, I loved this movie, even more so sitting at home watching it for a second time. Very rarely has the power of storytelling been showcased so wondrously. Words aren’t stiff little immovable objects littering white pieces of paper, they are living, breathing entities that expand, grow, move, change and evolve over time. Imagination makes them breathe, this film one of the few that manages to not only understand this but also manages to capture the audience’s psyche like a piece of great literature.
Tarsem weaves it all with ease, coupling his technical wizardry with a pair of outstanding performance by character actor Pace (recently stealing scenes in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) and newcomer Untaru to craft something borderline extraordinary. One watches the movie greedily, eager to see what the director has up his sleeve next and anxious to experience each of the plot’s subtly exciting nuances.
The recently released DVD looks wonderful, but considering just how stunning Colin Watkinson’s cinematography, Ged Clarke’s production design and (especially) Academy Award-winner Eiko Ishioka’s costumes are I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to wanting to experience the picture on Blu-ray. Be that as it may, this is as strong a standard def release as I’ve seen in ages, the 1.85:1 Widescreen transfer as clean, precise and as visually alive as any I probably could have hoped for.
As for the special features, the two commentary tracks are the chief highlights. Of those, while the one with actor Pace, writer/producer Nico Soultanakis and writer Dan Gilroy has its moments, it is the track featuring writer/director Tarsem that is the one to listen to. It’s interesting to hear him speak as to why The Fall had to be his next film, why it spoke to him so completely and why it forced him to focus any and all of his free time on its production.
Otherwise, the two featurettes and the collection of deleted scenes are passable, nothing more. Thankfully, the rest of the film is spectacular and film lovers who missed this one in theaters will kick themselves repeatedly after viewing it on DVD, The Fall a sensational epic that’s also one 2008’s best.
