Tarsem Singh, known for his cult hit "The Cell," returns to the silver screen with his independently funded visual parade of color, "The Fall." Certainly one of the most underrated films of the year, The Fall is a beautiful and encouraging story of revenge and heroism on a truly epic scale. This scale, however, is awkwardly balanced, and although magnificent to view, its not without its series of faults.
Anyone who's seen The Fall will tell you the same thing: it's stunning eye-candy, beyond almost anything you can comprehend in modern filmmaking. What Tarsem does with the cinematography, costume design and set pieces is transform what would ordinarily be just a desert, just a hospital, or just water...he turns it all into beautiful bewilderment for the senses. While the scheme of colors will certainly transcend what you may be used to, on par with it is the performance by one-time star Catinca Untaru. If you get the DVD or somehow find interviews with cast and crew, you'll find some neat fun facts, mostly revolving around her character. Most of her dialogue is completely improvised because the crew wanted her to believe what was happening on set was actually real, such as Lee Pace's character being bed-ridden because he broke his leg. On a side note, Lee Pace provides a very intriguing and memorable performance as Roy, a failed and loveless stuntman.
Roy proceeds to tell a large-scale, stunning story of unwavering love and justified revenge, but stops at the most crucial moments, forcing young Alexandria (Untaru) to get him medication he wants. The film is basically split into two intersecting stories: the one Roy tells Alexandria and the real-life story of Roy's illness and Alexandria's defiance and perseverance. The story that Roy creates is vividly imagine by Alexandria in a series of semi-narrated sequences, all brilliantly played out and orchestrated.
So what's the problem? Depth. The Fall lacks depth. In what could easily have underlying themes and real emotional value, there is almost none. The Fall falls barren and flat by the end, and as beautiful and interesting as it is, none of the characters really have any interesting layers to them. The back-stories of the 5 protagonists and the main antagonists are barely touched on, and they're mostly very interesting. Its sad to see lifelines of potentially incredible characters cut so short. Although the whole "story" within the story is completely made up of the top of Roy's mind as he's on several forms of medication, there are parts towards the middle-end that either trail off into nothing or don't really make sense. The Fall is quirky and an odd film, to say the least, but by the end, you'll feel a strange mix of uneasy dissatisfaction and a thematic orgasm.
The Fall's greatest strength, though, is a great strength that still has yet to be paralleled in my view. Every single shot taking place within the faux story is simply jaw-dropping, and to know that no special effects or fake transitions were used is just another mind-blowing gratification. What The Fall lacks in its narrative, it more than makes up for in its skin-deep beauty. In fact, imagine The Fall as an angelically attractive person with emotion and ambition who ultimately just isn't good at any of his/her talents he/she tries to evoke. The Fall looked to be like an Academy Award-grabbing escapade, and in its costume and set departments, it should be. However, The Fall could have been a spectacular overall film if only the script had been focused on a little more. If the plot and characters had been revisited a little more, or to the degree of the bombastic visuals, The Fall would have been perfect.
8.0/10
-Kyle Shelton
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