REVIEW : "The Fall" (2006) - Movie by Tarsem Singh

The fall is in many ways an interesting experience. Both for its virtues and its vices. I cannot think of another movie on the top of my head that is similar in style to this one, so from that point of view alone, it makes it at least a special experience. The closest thing would be a movie like "300".

It is all about form over substance. Sure there is a underlying "plot" and "story" but after all it cannot amount to more, in my mind, as a necessary vehicle for creating elaborate and spectacular, and quite retrospective, scenery. And I use the term scenery rather than cinematography, as scenery is only a part of cinematography and when all cards are put into scenery a lot of cinema is glossed over and in the end makes it just lots of empty calories.

An unknown stuntman of the silent era (the roaring twenties) ends up in a hospital after a fall from filming a scene on a bridge. A Romanian girl, with a broken arm, befriends him since the mysterious stuntman is a very good story teller.

As the story is told they unfold before us in all their fantastic and colorful glory. That they are stories is pointed out by the characters suddenly talking weird, for us to soon after find out that the dialogue is a part of what the girl and the man is saying in the hospital. I am not sure what the technical term for these kinds of cuts are, but at times they feel a bit goofy.

But at least the director is consequently fantastic from start to finish and it does give it a certain charm that I appreciate and at times I was quite impressed with the cuts and crossfading of sceneries that must have taking a truck-load of time to set up.

The girl is adorably played by an unknown child who equals the somewhat limited palette of Lee Pace. She can even cry and act at the same time and giving Lee a run for his money. The underlying story that apparently need to be there to give the stuntman an incentive to create the story for the girl is pretty lousy and only barely manages to not suck.

The characters of the story is completely cartoonish and each of them never really materializes for me, into someone I would care for in any sense of the word. Not even the Bandit (alter ego of the stuntman) who is not fleshed out in any particular way that makes him interesting.

This is what is so damning about it. I constantly found myself thinking, this could be so cool, this idea is good and it opens up so many interesting possibilities. But the director does not focus enough on the acting and character creation, he is purely visual in a "I want to impress the viewer" kind of attitude.

The reason I say this is that a lot of the scenes do not feel like they are connected in a cinematic or artistic way. Each of them are impressive and some astounding, but it is like having a meal all made out of delicious deserts. It does get a little sugar rush like.

But when you adjust yourself to these aspects though, it is an impressive movie no doubt about it. They have made sure to find naturally awesome locations around the world to make it feel more organic than what could be possible from your average big bucks cgi bombardment. It does have a clear nudge back at the old silent movies but this aspect is not really fleshed out either, it is just hinted at in the overall feel.

This organic feel is the best part of it, I just wished that the story was more engaging and the characters got to me better than the superficial, cartoony impression they made on me. I can recommend it for the organic feel and the impressive scenery and costumes and such, but not much else.

6/10