The Fall (2006)

This film is one that I could class under “truly spectacular” and not even blink when saying it. This film truly is beautiful.

It is set in Los Angeles, “once upon a time”, and centers around a young girl with a broken collarbone, Alexandria, who finds an injured stuntman, Roy, at the same hospital. He tells her an incredible story of five friends, an Indian, an ex-slave, an explosions expert, Charles Darwin and the Masked Bandit, who all have a grudge against the evil governor Odious. As the story progresses, Roy uses his friendship with Alexandria to his own ends, and as the story reaches its end, the lines between fiction and reality start to blur.

Now, I know from that description alone, a few of you may think it’s a rather silly movie. And at first glance I thought it was as well. But allow me, if you will, to defend this movie’s honor.

The first thing you must understand about this film is that although it’s a fantasy story, it is by no means a children’s tale. If I were to link it to any other films I would call this a twist between A Princess Bride and Pan’s Labyrinth. From the very beginning, the characters that Roy introduces to Alexandria have a dark history involving death, and throughout the film every death is imagined in harsh detail by our young heroine.

As there are two main characters in the “reality” side of this film, they work together to create the world the audience see: Roy tells the tale, and Alexandria imagines it. She gives the characters faces of people she knows, she gives them objects that she herself treasures… Because this is all in a child’s imagination the film is incredibly bright and striking. Every costume is creative and otherworldly (all designed by Eiko Ishioka, who did the costuming on Varekai, the Cirque du Soleil production) – seen as a child would see, generalized and sometimes stereotypical – this unique view is one of the reasons this film is so magical: everything Alexandria sees is REAL to her, and because of this the audience fall into this world and accept it as their reality also.

As the story progresses, Alexandria gains more influence over Roy’s characters; giving them things to say, making them act in certain ways and even bringing in a new character into the story (herself) to save the day when Roy’s tale brings our characters to near-death. The story gets darker as Roy steadily sinks into a depression, and Alexandria’s perception of the world follows suit. I do warn you, some scenes in this film are very harrowing. It’s actually rather commendable that Tarsem was able to capture with such delicacy the sheer power of a child’s imagination. We forget sometimes just how vivid it can be. And when Alexandria gets scared by Roy’s story, her visions become disturbing and very memorable. The dark guards who serve Odious don’t even have voices, they make sounds only wild dogs and angry beasts would, because that is what our heroine finds frightening.

Like the characters, the setting is also envisioned by Alexandria. Turning bright orange sands and white islands in the middle of a glassy-watered ocean into backdrops for Roy’s characters to inhabit. The film was shot on 26 locations over 18 countries, if we’re to go technical, and everything that you see on screen is real. Which again adds to the vibrant imaginary world as so many of these places look too beautiful to truly exist in real life.

As Roy gets further into the story, Alexandria begins to see the characters in real life (like the evil black guards of governor Odious), and Roy sinks deeper and deeper into his depressive state. He uses his friendship with Alexandria to convince her to get him morphine so he can end his life, and scares her half to death when it doesn’t work. It’s an incredibly powerful bond that develops between them, and leads the audience towards the final conclusion of the film.

The actors fit their roles amazingly. You know how sometimes is it said that an actor chooses a part, and that sometimes a part chooses the actor? In this film, it was both. Lee Pace is incredible as Roy. He does not need to act sad and in pain because in real life people don’t act like that, they just are if that’s how they feel. He portrays every emotion spectacularly through facial expressions, or the tone of his voice. At one point, it’s enough for his voice to go quiet for me to sink into tears (oh, did I mention I cried in this film?). Catinca Untaru is absolutely breathtaking as Alexandria. It’s her first role and she is incredible. The miscommunication between her and Lee Pace on screen was real, as she thought that in real life the actor himself was paralyzed. Also, her English improved in the film because the director shot her scenes in chronological order, thus making her physical growth, as well as her character’s, realistic and believable. The actors work so well together, it’s just beautiful to watch.

The film soundtrack is also very influential and important. The main theme is Beethoven’s symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, II. Allegretto, and they could not have chosen a more perfect piece of music for this film. It is slow, beautiful, sad and ominous, without going over the top and destroying the illusion built for you by Alexandria and Roy.

This film jumped into my top 10 as soon as I saw it (about a week ago now) and will remain there for a long time until something comes along that can beat it in magnitude, ambition, beauty and power. This film gets a very rare 9/10 from me. I highly recommend it to everyone who has ever imagined, loved, and known the beauty and power of friendship.

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