The Fall (2006)

dir. Tarsem Singh
writ. Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, Tarsem Singh
feat. Catinca Untaru, Lee Pace, Justine Waddell

The Fall is precisely the type of film that I enter with great trepidation, ever hopeful for a fantasy that fully consumes, transporting the viewer to a strange and beautiful new world while ever fearful that it will fall into the traps of so many such attempts, poor writing, awful acting by both children and adults and gaping holes in the plot. Perhaps because of such doubt, The Fall manages to so deeply satisfy, soaring as a personal drama as well as a grand fantasy. More pointedly, a huge portion of such credit must go to Catinca Untaru, the Romanian born actress who plays the young girl, Alexandria, so naturally as to be mistaken for the subject of a documentary, frequently stumbling over words and staring off in odd directions.

Roy Walker (Pace), an injured stuntman with a broken heart, weaves a fantastic story for Alexandria, slowly staging an elaborate ruse to trick the young girl into procuring him enough dope to kill himself. The story stumbles through the fantasy sequences as Roy, not an experienced storyteller and drifting in the haze of his pain medication, works out each new stretch, building an allegory for his recent experience of love lost. Because of this narrative device, the film suffers somewhat, dragging and meandering with Roy's mental state, the fantasy sequences occasionally stalling out or feeling forced.

But Alexandria picks up the pieces, serving as the perfect foil to Roy's dip into self-pity, always posing innocent questions reflecting her young, happy view of life. Astonishingly, where so many similar films fail, with the fantasy scenes holding all the rapture and fascination while the real world moments threaten to kill the pace and magic, The Fall nearly turns that around, with the dream world occasionally slowing the story while the moments in the hospital resurrect the life of the tale and the characters.

Tarsem (as the director is often called) has created a masterpiece with The Fall, a work deserving of the many hours and days of shooting across the planet, a wildly compelling film of fantasy, beauty and heart.