Underrated film of the week - The Fall

This review requires a little back story before I get into the film itself. About a year ago, a friend of mine told me about a film called “The Fall”, and kept pontificating about it for a long time after that, trying to do whatever he can to see it, begging theatres to have screenings of it so he would have the opportunity to go see it in this province, sadly to no avail. After hearing him talk about it for the summer months, telling me details of the production of the film (filmed over four years in 18 different countries, sadly not in Canada), the critical success of the film, and that it was directed by the man who gave us the Jennifer Lopez film “The Cell” (which, given it’s horrible writing, was visually breathtaking) and REM’s “Losing My Religion” video which as a kid I remember being blown away by. After my friend had finally seen the film, pontificating even more now on how fantastic the film was, I relented and bought the dvd the day it came out, just around when University started back up, and given all the hype I had heard thus far, one assumes there was no way after months of hype a film I had never heard of previously could be good.

Boy was I wrong. Tarsem’s (he gave no last name on the credits, sorta like Prince) “The Fall” is a brilliant piece of art. The story is set in Los Angeles in the 1920’s (Once upon a time, as the film’s title card states) when two hospitalized people, Roy, a Hollywood stuntman who nearly died falling off a bridge into a river during the filming of a western, and Alexandria, a little girl who suffered a fall of her own and broke her arm, strike up an unusual friendship with each other. Both characters have fallen more than just literally, with Roy’s girlfriend breaking his heart, and Alexandria’s death of her father and her house burned down. Roy tells her a fantastic story of a group of people whom team up to get revenge from the evil governor Odious, which parallels both Roy and Alexandria’s relationship as the film progresses, becoming very emotional at some points when the real reason why Roy tells her the tale is revealed, resulting in a moment when I even started shedding a tear or two.

I know I’m going to get hell from my friend for dumbing the plot of the film down to its simplest explanation, however, the film is remarkable simple yet remarkable complex, and similar to “The Princess Bride”, both Roy and Alexandria’s friendship and the myth that Roy tells her are both child-like in it’s simplicity, yet both offer a complexness to the motivations behind why the characters do certain things, and like “The Princess Bride”, the audience just succumbs to the fairy tale like storytelling like going into a warm bath, and every time Roy stops the story, the audience feels just like Alexandria, eager to know what happens next. Really there is very little to say negative about this film, other than the reference I have made to a previous fantasy tale, as The Fall has very little wrong with it.

On the positive side, this film deserved Oscars for the following: Cinematography, Production Design and Costume Design. I know the last few reviews I keep discussing cinematography, but this film really deserves mentioning, with every shot looking like a painting or a shot from the BBC series “Planet Earth”, the film is quite literally jaw-droppingly astonishing (those who have a Blu-Ray player would definitely revel in the clarity and stunning beauty in each shot). Furthermore, the films costume designs (from the Oscar winner designer of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula) and the films various and vast sets also deserve extreme kudos to go with how beautiful the film is. The acting as well is incredible, with Lee Pace playing Roy as such a troubled figure who sees good in Alexandria and does what he can to hide his pain from her. Special notice goes to Alexandria, played by Catinca Untaru, whom at such a young age, is able to convey so much in her leading performance to the audience, between her innocence and her feelings to Roy, whom she sees as a father figure. Last but not least, credit goes to where it is due: Tarsem for crafting a film which is clearly a labour of love, investing more than 10 years of his life into making this film, and four years of filming, finishing the film in 2006 before the dvd came out last year. Directing, Producing, and Co-Writing this film, Tarsem was able to have complete control over his film, and thus he crafts such a fantastic story in both Alexandria and Roy, as well as the fairy tale, with moments in the latter that are so well constructed and play with the conventions of telling a story that, coupled with how stunning the film looks and how emotionally incredible it is, it’s impossible not to be engaged in fully, and I can gladly say I want to be in line to see what the director makes next.

This film, along with “The Dark Knight”, tied #1 for my best film of last year, and that was when I had seen “The Fall” once, and “The Dark Knight” about a dozen times by the end of the year, which tells you the impact “The Fall” had on me. One note, although the film is Rated R for: Some Violent Images (14A in Canada), this film could have easily gotten away with a PG-13 in the US compared to the violence of films such as “Fast and Furious” as the violence in “The Fall” is artistically done and fairy tale like (similar to swordfights in “The Princess Bride”...okay that’s the last time I’m referencing that film). However, it is emotionally intense as some themes are quite serious (Roy attempts suicide, the finale of the story Roy tells the girl gets dark during the climax, the deaths of characters in the fairy tale), but again the film is quite delicate when dealing with these moments, and, should have resulted the film getting a lighter rating than it did. This film reminds me why I love the movies as I do, and how powerful a film can make an audience feel. My friend kept telling me to see this film, and I don’t regret it for a second, and now it’s my turn to pay him back, declaring this film as my underrated film of the week.

5/5 stars.

The Scotch this week is Grants.