The Fall review

 Number 404 on the top 1000 films of all time is Tarsem Singh's adventure-fantasy film 'The Fall.'

In 1915 Los Angeles, stunt man Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is hospitalised after a stunt gone wrong. In hospital, he forms an unlikely friendship with fellow patient, eight-year-old Romanian girl Alexandria  (Catinca Untaru) who is recovering from a broken arm. He entertains her with a wild and fantasy tale about a rag-tag group of rebels to team up to kill a common enemy, but he has an agenda of his own. 

I think this is a film that you have to see more than once to truly appreciate. Upon the first watch, I decided the film wasn't for me, being critical of the story-within-a-story format. On other occasions such as with the Chinese Wuxia Hero, this format fell flat because the framing story wasn't as interesting as the secondary story.

Upon a rewatch, I can say this was not the case for the Fall. I really enjoyed watching Roy and Alexandria's relationship progress. The two of them had great on-screen chemistry. Catinca Untaru was adorable and she worked well with the much older Lee Pace who became a surrogate father figure for her. I'm not sure whether Untaru went onto have a big acting career, but she was very good here. So was Lee Pace. It was a relationship with lots of pathos.

*spoilers*

This pathos extends into Roy's dark secret. In exchange for entertaining Alexandria with these stories, he asks her to steal morphine for him. Ostensibly, this is to help him sleep, but he actually intends to commit suicide. His beloved has left him for the actor he was doubling for. Now he no longer wants to live. This was suitably tragic with Pace and Catinca giving good performances.

While the B-story has great visual flair reflective of the countless different filming locations as well as director Tarsem Singh's insistence that the film be shot on-location with minimal special effects, the framing story is suitably more muted and dour. 

The B-story sees a range of quirky characters including a masked bandit, a silent Indian warrior, an ex-slave, an Italian explosives expert and Charles Darwin. They all team up to take revenge on a governor who has wronged them all. The fantasy land they inhabited was marked by bold colours and a distinct look - similar to the Chinese Hero film. I enjoyed seeing this colourful cast of characters and it was sad watching them meet their respective ends.

If you were left unimpressed watching this film once, do yourself a favour and watch it again. You might just be surprised.