In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little immigrant girl recovering from a fall, a fantastic story of five mythical heroes. Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale.
The pacing drags and the clichéd tussle between childhood innocence and adult disillusionment can only go one way. Better to experience it than think about it, fair to say.
Something like a Sir David Lean epic crossed with trippy offshoots of tall tales of Zorro, Ali Baba and Pecos Bill rolled into one, The Fall is a sun-kissed companion to Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. A brilliant follow-up from Tarsem Singh.
I wonder if it's unforgivable heresy to say The Cell is badly underestimated and due for revisionism while The Fall, despite its relative obscurity, is badly overestimated.
Pace and Untaru generate an unforced chemistry that makes them pleasant company for a couple of hours, but they almost work against the movie's need to establish narrative tension. They appear to be having such a good time that Roy's self-destructive impu
Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco Chronicle
May 30, 2008
An achingly beautiful movie and a triumph of location scouting, with more cosmopolitan spectacle than the past three Indiana Jones and James Bond movies combined.
Often praised -- and rightly so -- for its incredible visuals and nonstop stylishness. I have no problem with that, except that I'm equally taken by its thematic implications.
