150 Word Review: 'The Fall' (2008)
Bedside manners
In director Tarem Singh's fantasy epic The Fall, a little girl with a broken arm listens to a broken-hearted young man spin a fantastic tale of high adventure from his hospital bed. Singh co-wrote this overlooked fantasy with Dan Gilroy and Nico Soultanakis, and the result is a whimsical movie about stories.
The Fall is visually tangible, and beautiful—stunning locales, colorful costumes, the absence of CGI.
Lee Pace plays an injured silent movie stuntman in love with an indifferent leading lady, and Catinca Untaru is a bored five-year-old with a charming European accent. The movie works because these two actors are in sync. Their relationship is dark: he wants to die but she wants him to finish his fable about a diverse group of warriors led by a masked bandit fighting the evil Governor Odious. Singh reminds me of Terry Gilliam, another stylist whose movies mix reality and dreams.
A very nice review, and you might enjoy this recent interview with Lee Pace about the film: https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/lee-pace-the-fall-interview
Tarsem SIngh's cinematography in "The fall" reminds me of Parajanov much more than Terry Gilliam: same construction as a series of gorgeous tableaux.
Eiko Ishioka's costumes are indeed fabulous and it works well for this movie (and "Mirror, mirror") but, e.g., she also dressed Gary Oldham in the dreadful Coppola's Dracula, where they absolutely stole the show (his hair buns alone deserved their own movie), and that wasn't right there.