Review: The Fall

The Fall (2006, Tarsem Singh)

A young Indian girl, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), injured during a fall while picking fruit, befriends an injured stunt double, Roy (Lee Pace), who's resting at the same hospital. No longer able to walk but desperate for drugs to sooth him, the stunt double gets Alexandria to steal drugs from the medicine cabinet in exchange for hearing an elaborate and fantastical story.
By the end of this film, I had the sentiment that I should have seen this in the theater.

At the risk of sounding obvious and redunant, The Fall treats the viewer to a unique visual spectacle. It's like a beautiful painting, only that it's moving. Colors are rich, the cinematography succeeds in getting as much 'oomph' in each shot as imaginable. Thankfully, the film doesn't sacrifice its story or characters. The bonding (even though there are ulterior motives involved) was touching and well written. Young Catinca Untara simply gives an honest and believable performance, which is more than we can say for countless other child actors. Lee Pace's devious nature may appear as cold to some, but it serves the purpose of the story very well and, I felt, enhanced the process of their bonding even more later in the story.
IMDB has 2006 as the year for The Fall, but it was released in North America earlier this year, so I'll just go ahead and say it's one of my favorite films of the year so far.

4/5

Want to read more on The Fall? Check out the review at M. Carter at the Movies.