Review: The Fall
Filed under: Action, Independent, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, Roadside Attractions
When Tarsem Singh's The Cell was released in 2000, I spent most of my review talking about the way it looked, from the cinematography to the costume design. Eight years later, Tarsem (he's just going by his first name now) has finally made his second film, and it looks like my review of it might be structured the same way.
And why shouldn't it be? The films have a lot in common, both set primarily inside someone's mind, and the new one is only two letters away: It's called The Fall. (Suggested future titles for Tarsem movies: The Bull, The Mill, and The Doll.) The Fall is much lighter fare than the unsettling Cell was, though not without its dark moments, and if its imaginative story isn't exactly brilliant, I'm not concerned. I would be content to merely look at the film all day.
And I like the story, too. It's set in about 1915 at a hospital in Los Angeles, where a despondent stuntman named Roy (Lee Pace) is recovering from a mishap that has left him unable to walk. Scampering around the hospital grounds is Alexandria (Carinca Untaru), a mischievous little girl with a broken arm. She speaks with what sounds to me like an Indian accent, though the actress is Romanian. She meanders into Roy's room one day, and Roy, upon hearing her name, tells her about Alexander the Great. She is so entranced by his yarn-spinning that she wants to hear another. Roy obliges.
This time, he uses details from his own life and from Alexandria's to weave a tale of old-fashioned adventure, something Robert Louis Stevenson might have written if he'd been a casual LSD user. The story, grandly played out before our eyes with minor characters from Roy's world appearing as its characters, is about a band of five men from all over the globe who are united by their hatred of an evil man named Governor Odious, upon whom each has sworn to have his vengeance. They are: a former slave (Marcus Wesley), an Indian man (Jeetu Verma), an Italian explosives expert (Robin Smith), a masked bandit who stands in for Roy himself, and, um, Charles Darwin (Leo Bill), accompanied by a monkey that gives him advice from within the satchel in which he is carried. (Well, why not?)
The five revenge-seekers, each wearing costumes of a different predominant color, travel the world to reach Gov. Odious, guided at one point by a babbling mystic warrior (Julian Bleach) who comes out of a burning tree. (Again, why not?) The masked bandit's beef with Odious is that Odious killed his brother. In real life, the Odious figure stole Roy's girlfriend, which hints at the cause of Roy's despondency. [Thanks to the commenter below for correcting me on some of this.] It also ties in with why, in the hospital scenes that are interspersed with the storytelling, he wants Alexandria to fetch him some morphine. A lot of it.
The screenplay is credited to Tarsem, regular producing partner Nico Soultanakis, and Dan Gilroy (Two for the Money), and it was apparently inspired by a 1981 Bulgarian film called Yo Ho Ho, though not in any official, credit-giving, copyright-securing kind of way. Whatever the source, Tarsem and his crew have executed the story in dazzling fashion. Elaborate sets were constructed in 18 different countries (no computer-generated backgrounds are used), and photography was done over the course of a few years. Tarsem's shot compositions are artful, his camera movements graceful, and Colin Watkinson's cinematography is extraordinarily vibrant.
Like The Cell, the visuals are more compelling than the content, but I don't have anything against the content, either. The interaction between Lee Pace and young Carinca Untaru is wonderfully charming, the latter giving a performance that's totally unaffected and natural, and the film's theme -- that we are the protagonists in our own stories and can choose our own destinies -- is nicely rendered.
Does the fantasy story go a bit off the rails at times? Yes, but I think that's part of the fun. (After debuting at Toronto in 2006, the film languished until Spike Jonze and David Fincher championed it -- so that should give you an idea of its oddness.) It's such an exotic, fanciful story, so loony and imaginative and outre -- believe me, my summary barely scratches the surface of all the tale's kooky details and locations -- that the crazier it gets, the more intrigued I am. It's rare that a film sweeps you into its world as fully as The Fall does. I can't wait to see what Tarsem comes up with next.
Note: The film's R rating is absurd, especially in light of the recent PG rating for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The Fall's violence is no more plentiful or graphic than Caspian's, and neither film has any sex or profanity. Both should have been rated PG-13. I defy any member of the MPAA ratings board to stand up and say otherwise and keep a straight face.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-02-2008 @ 4:09PM
Scott said...
I wonder if Tarsem requested the R rating to make it seem like more of an art film or at least to drawn in the crowd. It's sad that people are turned off by a PG rating.
Scott
he-shot-cyrus.blogspot.com
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6-02-2008 @ 5:18PM
tv junkie said...
Just like Prince Caspian being rated PG because its predecessor was rated PG, The Fall got the R rating simply for being an art house film and coming from the director of The Cell.
BTW, Tarsem Singh went by Tarsem during his music video days, i think the only project he went by his full name is The Cell, since it's a big budget Hollywood film and all, they probably forced him not to go by just Tarsem.
I wanted to see The Fall so bad when I first saw the trailer, but after seeing the trailer so many times, kind of lost interest...hope it has a blu-ray release...at least for the visual spectacle.
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6-02-2008 @ 5:24PM
Richard von Busack said...
To ward off this line of inquiry, I don't think it's a matter of pretentiousness that Tarsem calls himself Tarsem sometimes and Tarsem Singh sometimes; it's not like Pitou or McQ, since every male Sikh is given the last name Singh...
Loved this movie, incidentally. It's obviously too rich for a lot of critics, but I thought the little girl was marvelous: she really gave roots to the film.
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6-02-2008 @ 8:00PM
Phae said...
I caught this movie last night and loved it. It was so strange and delightful, and utterly beautiful.
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6-02-2008 @ 8:33PM
Nick said...
"...it was apparently inspired by a 1981 Bulgarian film called Yo Ho Ho, though not in any official, credit-giving, copyright-securing kind of way. "
Tarsem bought the remake rights and it's listed in the credits as being the basis for this film.
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6-02-2008 @ 8:42PM
Eric D. Snider said...
I saw the film on DVD screener and have already returned it to the publicist so I can't double-check, but I'm 99 percent certain the credits didn't indicate this. Maybe the "based on" credit was added after the screener was made, or maybe I missed it. I'll look into it. My impression from things I'd read was that "The Fall" was more "inspired" by the other film than directly based on it; not having seen it, I don't know how close the two are.
6-02-2008 @ 10:38PM
Nick said...
That was the impression I got too. Tarsem did a Q&A at the screening I went to, and he said he's only seen "Yo Ho Ho" twice. First when he was a child, thirty years ago, and again fifteen years ago and hasn't seen it since. But since the idea spawned from seeing that film, Tarsem bought the remake rights.
6-02-2008 @ 9:24PM
paul said...
"you always stop at the same part, when it's very beautiful"
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/thefall/trailer/
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6-03-2008 @ 2:13PM
Diana said...
"The masked bandit's beef with Odious is that he stole his girlfriend"
While Roy's girlfriend was stolen by an actor who ended up portraying Odious in the story, the masked bandit's beef was that Odious captured and killed his brother, the Blue Bandit.
Point of trivia: I think Singh is Tarsem's middle name, actually. His real last name is Dhandwar. As someone above noted, he needed to use a last name for The Cell.
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6-03-2008 @ 6:48PM
Eric D. Snider said...
Doh! Right you are. See, just like Roy, I have trouble separating fact from fantasy...
6-04-2008 @ 5:57PM
Dan Q. Tham said...
I thought this film was absolutely beautiful, especially the cinematography. I don't really get the negative criticism going on about it, as the main point of contention is that it's too slow or pretentious. I felt that "The Fall" was extremely enthralling and I really want to see it again. Music was great as well.
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6-05-2008 @ 2:05PM
mike said...
Saw it 2 nights ago... Loved it!!
I agree with the R rating and asked my friend, maybe it was the presence of suicidal themes? Regardless, it should have been PG-13...
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6-06-2008 @ 9:22AM
tkangaroo said...
Thanks for the review, especially the ratings bit. I, unlike many people, are usually put off by the R rating and wanted to make sure I could stomach seeing the rest, though the visuals in the trailer alone had me mesmerized. Now if I can just find it in North Carolina. . .
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6-08-2008 @ 3:15AM
Ben B. said...
Saw it tonight and loved it. Like others have said already, critics are unfairly labelling the movie as slow and pretentious when in reality, they can't follow the movie for some reason. My girlfriend looked at me at the end and said, "Why in the world wouldn't people like this?"
Also, the reason it got a rating of R was due to adult situations (i.e. suicide, drug use, and an off scene sex scene witnessed by a child). Really that last one is a bit of a stretch, but the drug use is definately the reason for the 'R'.
I can understand this type of action when it comes to movies about pot smoking, cocaine or other illegal drug use. But morphine overdoses seems a little bit of a stretch. Honestly, my girlfriend was terrified of seeing it at first because she knew of Tarsem's The Cell and an 'R' rating for "The Fall" led her to believe that this movie was the same. But thankfully she read several reviews, including this one that told her that that rating was absurd.
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6-29-2008 @ 8:49AM
Phil Cardenas said...
Richard...did you mean McG (not McQ)? Either way, I do get tired of the pretentious one name directors. Please, leave the vanity to people who sing and act (yeah, I'm looking at you Cher). Another one that gets me is the super indulgent, hey-look-at-me-I'm-being-provocative! director ASH (Pups, Bang). Stop it. JUST USE YOUR NAME. It's not 1940 anymore and Louis B. Mayer is long gone.
Speaking of the mis-rating of movies--has anyone seen "The Hammer"? That movie easily could have been PG-13 too. No sex, no violence, no real language issues (1 or 2 f-bombs). My goodness, I was more offended by Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me than this movie. The rating system is broken and We The People need to fix it.
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