Eye Candy #111 - "The Fall"

The Fall: You know when you watch a Tarsem Singh-directed film, it’s going to have production value out the ying-yang and will be a visual feast for the eyes, and “The Fall” is no exception. Playing like a contemporary “Adventures of Baron Munchausen”, a young girl named Alexandria befriends a suicidal, crippled stuntman, Roy, in the same hospital in Los Angeles in the 1920’s. He wins her trust by telling her a story about a group of adventurers seeking revenge against an evil ruler who has wronged each of the five men. He tells her a bit more of the story each day, while trying to get Alexandria to steal enough drugs from the infirmary so he can overdose and kill himself. The two stories run simultaneously with various actors playing roles in both stories. Sumptuous to look at and a more effective film than Tarsem’s previous “The Cell” (which is still a great picture visually, it just lacked the oomph emotionally that this film has), “The Fall” feels more like a European film than an American one, and would make a great double bill with “Pan’s Labyrinth”. The two leads, Catinca Untaru as Alexandria and Lee Pace as Roy Walker, are great together, particularly Catinca, who really does carry the picture on her 7-8 year old shoulders. A bit overlong (at almost 2 hours), but never dull or boring to look at, I liked this one. Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”