By: elkayTakhel
Things happen for a reason; and most of the times we are in the dark, but yes there is a reason. This film here exists for the sole purpose of showing us the visual magic that is possible with a magician at the helm.
The film is about Roy, played by Lee Pace, a stuntman of the silent movies of old. He’s been injured and hospitalized at the line of duty. Roy is a soft-spoken, of pleasant appearance and of a convincing nature. At the hospital, he befriends another patient, a young girl called Alexandria.
Roy tells a story to Alexandria of a group of adventurers. The story is Roy’s but the imagination,the visual output that we get to see is the little girl’s. The scenery and the settings change as quickly as the little girl’s imaginings. The fascinating thing is that Roy’s story is also made up on-the-go; so we get presented with an ever-changing story and visual settings at the whims of the aforementioned lead characters.
Roy’s story involves a group of people who gang themselves up against a common enemy- General Odious, who has committed grave, unspeakable, unknown sins against them all. The merry band of ‘avengers’ consists of the ‘Indian’, Charles Darwin and his pet monkey, an Italian anarchist, an escaped Slave and of course Roy as the Black Bandit, joined later by the ‘Little Girl’ herself. The story spans continents and multiple settings depending on the moods of the storyteller and the listener.
Alexandria gets so ensnared and enamored with the story that Roy uses this to draw out his personal motives. He tries to get her to bring him morphine pills for his planned suicide to lament the loss of his ‘true love’ (the Princess in the story) and his paralytic physical state. This causes a lot of complications in the story and the story within the story. And this of course leads to how the little girl finally makes Roy get up after ‘The Fall.’
The roles have been played out beautifully, especially the leading ones. Lee Pace in his role as Roy the dejected, disappointed with life yet with a cheery exterior easily convinces us as he does Alexandria of his story and us of the sad nature of his existence. The role of Alexandria couldn’t have been portrayed more suitably by someone else other than the very able and pint-sized CatincaUntaru. In her role as Alexandria, she exudes the much needed cuteness and innocence of the child listener who tries and stumbles through the maze of foreign words and in her own way tries to make some sense of the neologisms. The rest of the casts have done their job, by being there, as set pieces, as part of the breathtaking mastery.
Tarsem Singh at the helm as the Master and Commander of a ship that tries to brave the unsteady and wile tides that could at any time sink the ‘unsinkable,’ manages masterfully to cut through all the treacherous waves and bring us the treasure that is ‘The Fall.’ The film is a wonderful, visually extravagant odyssey that takes us on a journey far beyond our most vivid imaginations because, of course, it is through the mind of a youngling, of an age that overlooks any of the holds and boundaries that limits our “mature” thinking. What couldn’t be said in words or actions are fed to us with a platinum spoon through our eyes through so many touching and breathtaking scenes. With this film, with a very limited use of Computer mastery, Tarsem delivers to us the excellent beauty of the natural world around us with a simple spell of his wizardry to transport us to a world much beyond.
‘The Fall’ has a good storyline, a good cast and a very good setting. The story is good, even bordering on a bit towards outstanding but nothing to be so captivated by; we may have been to other similar/familiar outings, but visually more fascinating, there is none like this. And if you are blessed by the Goddess of wealth and are lucky enough to own an HD television, please for the sake of your own movie-loving self, please watch it in High Definition, because this cinematic masterpiece deserves nothing less. As for the rest of us meecham-praja, we have our laptops and SD TVs.
So this weekend when the weather/environment outside, the real world has nothing to offer but gloomy skies and dark clouds, close the door and fire up the ‘ole Faithful and lets get lost in someone else’s rich and colorfully bright imagination. With this I leave you dear readers. Till the next time we meet again, “keep your minds open and your thoughts cheery.” Ciao.