Directed by Tarsem Singh
Written by Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, & Tarsem Singh
Starring: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Marcus Wesley, Robin Smith, Jeetu Verma, Leo Bill, Daniel Caltagirone, Marcus Wesley, & Julian Bleach
Release Year: 2006
IMDB rating: 8.0
An awesome treat to the eyes, The Fall not only excelled visually, but also the story was captivating.
It began in a hospital where a child named Alexandria was being treated after she fell and broke her arm. While recovering there, she met with Roy Walker, a Hollywood stuntman who got injured after his latest stunt to impress his girlfriend but later lost her to an actor who also played in the movie. Depressed and getting suicidal, Roy told Alexandria stories so that he could use her to steal morphine from the hospital dispensary. Alexandria’s imagination of the story blended various people from her life, including the people from the hospital. The Indian who was imagined as one of her acquaintances from India (instead of a Native American) in her home, the Italian explosives expert Luigi who was imagined as Roy’s one-legged friend that Alexandria thought was a pirate, Charles Darwin who was imagined as one of the hospital’s employee, Otta Benga the slave who was imagined as the ice delivery man, and the Black Bandit who later revealed imagined as Roy himself. As for Governor Odious and his fiancee, Alexandria imagined them as the actor that she met at the hospital and Nurse Evelyn, respectively.
Essentially, it was a tale of redemption, how Roy struggled to overcome his depression and how Alexandria played a big part in it. How it ended was not a typical fairy tale ending, but I’ll let you readers see it for yourself. In the end, as Alexandria said, it was not just Roy’s story, but it was also hers.
The movie was shot in various locations around the globe, giving it an exotic look. From South Africa (the hospital scenes), India, the Butterfly reef in Fiji, all the way to Bali (the Mystic’s scenes). Not only that Tarsem managed to blend great combinations of colors in this movie, he also made a lot of the scenes to look attractive by using clever angles for taking the shots. The angles, the costumes, the colors and the ‘arrangements’ of the characters were all a joy to behold.
Acting was great, especially by the two lead roles Roy Walker (Lee Pace) and Alexandria (Catinca Untaru). The child actress did extremely well here. Director Tarsem Singh even gave some room for improvisation on her role. Also, from the behind-the-scenes feature, I found out that during the early stages of the filming, Lee Pace ‘acted’ as if he was disabled without perhaps most of the crew, including his counterpart Catinca, knowing that he could actually walk. This was done on purpose to make Catinca able to ‘connect’ more to Lee’s role as a disabled patient. It was the interactions between Roy and Alexandria that this movie was all about.
As the final vote, for visual excellence, great acting, and captivating story, I gave it a 9.0.
