The Fall

I find it very hard to put into words what I have just seen, and to be honest with you trying to piece together the movies synopsis for my opening sentence in itself proved a problem. But then put yourself in my shoes, I have seen what has arguably been one of the biggest movies of all time, filmed in 18 different countries and 26 locations including India, China, Egypt, Romania, Bali, Turkey, and The United Kingdom. With one of the biggest casts of extras’, the largest film crews I have ever seen, and for an adventure movie other than for a few animated sequences there is absolutely no computer generated animation. Directed by Tarsem and backed by Spike Jonze and David Fincher, this is the wonderful world of The Fall.

Set in the 1920’s Roy Walker (Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies, and nothing to do with Catchphrase) is in a hospital on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Roy while filming on his latest movie took place in a stunt that has now landed him in a hospital run by the church, incapable of feelings from the waist down. At that same hospital is Alexandria (Catinca Untaru)a very young girl suffering with a broken arm; one day while walking through the hospital her path crosses Roy’s who tells her an amazing fact about Alexander The Great. Overwhelmed by his tale, Alexandria agrees to return the following day when Roy will tell her of a story set in a faraway place, but one that has a suspiciously familiar ring about it. For Alexandria this is a friendship with a man who could be a substitute father, for Roy his reason for striking up this relationship is far less innocent, he has an agenda and Alexandria is a pawn in his game.

I should begin by saying there is nothing of a sexual nature to Roy’s intentions to Alexandria, this is very far from his mind. As you watch the movie you slowly get to understand what he wants from Alexandria, while being fairly innocent it is tragic, you can see that clearly Alexandria needs a father and as most of the movie is set in images from her head, you soon realise that Roy is the only man that can fill that role.

While the real world that the story is anchored in is set in normal surroundings, it’s what happens when Roy and Alexandria when they start imagining the story Roy tells that sets this movie alight. Tarsem Singh (known in credits simply as Tarsem) is an Indian director best associated with the world of commercial and music video work. Tarsem should have come to the attention of the world back in 2005 when he was the original Director assigned to make the movie Constantine, Warner recruited him for his incredible eye for detail. But when Sony Pictures approached Tarsem with The Fall, it was something that the director could not resist, dropping (rather wisely in my opinion) the weaker Constantine for The Fall. Tarsem does indeed have an eye for beauty and wonder, and nothing would tell you otherwise when watching The Fall. If you are not blown away by the sheer majesty of this movie then sadly you had better get on to the hospital because you do not have a pulse.

I really cannot put into words how wonderful this movie looks; it looks so fantastic and in a world where computer generated effects are used in pretty much every movie you cannot believe that none were used here. From the colours, to locations that literally look out of this world; everything visually about this movie is just breathtaking. From the magnificent structures that have sat for thousands of years, to gloriously designed hedgerows. Tarsem uses some of the worlds man made wonders and completely reinvents them. A race across the top of The Great Wall Of China, which you would only know was the Great Wall if you swotted up on it. But it’s not just the sights that are familiar and re-imagined, it’s also the sights you have never seen that really create the icing on this movies cake; you would indeed need to be a world traveller to identify many of the sights seen in this movie. But it’s not just the locations that are striking, it’s the costumes, the make-up, and the unique cast that make this an experience like nothing you have ever seen before.

While visually you have not seen anything like The Fall, the story as not quite as satisfying. The story which for the most part is told from the mouth of Roy and imagined in the head of Alexandria follows the trails of movies like The Neverending Story. But don’t go getting excited that this might be another great family movie; because while the movie seems like a fairly standard piece of family viewing, suddenly 30 minutes before the movies end things suddenly get much more adult, and brutally so. As is the case with all great adventure movies along the way there are casualties, and as Roy’s alter ego The Bandit in the second story leads his motley crew of geniuses, explosives experts, shaman, and warriors through a sprawling landscape some must die.

Rather than allowing the time honoured tradition of killing one or two per quarter of the movie, the deaths occur as the movie draws to a conclusion, and these deaths are borderline horrific. One of The Bandit’s crew is butchered to death with axes, while birds fly from his mouth; you suddenly are teleported from beauty to horror at the movie takes a stark transition becoming more like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain. And then as quickly as the horror raises its head it movies back do to innocent adventure style story telling. It’s very hard to understand where The Falls target audience is, and this makes the story a touch disjointed, movie the film away from the mainstream to something more along the lines of Cult. In fairness, the storyline regardless of confusion, is a little bit lacking and for most of it I never really knew what was going on completely, but it hardly matters the biggest story is in the visual feast before you.

The movies warriors, a group of masked soldiers that make noises that cross between a dog and a crying child provide one of the most unpleasant bad armies of all time in my opinion. Ruthless in their assaults they have no time for hostages, cut off their heads and ask questions later. Their systematic execution of The Bandits men towards the end literally highlights this.

The performances in the movie are pretty good, with the exception of Lee Pace and the odd familiar star most of the movies cast are complete unknowns, some never having acted before. Its Catincu Untaru who really shines here, this Romanian actress does not speak a word of English, yet she delivers her lines (in a language she did not understand) with a quirkiness that really endears the actress. As an inexperienced actress and naive to the way of movies she was allegedly mortified when she discovered that Pace was not actually a paraplegic.