The Fall

This is a tough one to write. I've got no idea where to begin. The 20s period piece? The touching friendship? The swashbuckling fairy tale? The mesmerizing and weird imagery? Screw it.

This movie is like nothing I've seen before. I can identify parts: the colors are straight out of Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Limited; the swashbuckling is perhaps an element of Pirates of the Caribbean mixed with The Princess Bride, and possibly a bit of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Charles Darwin is one of the swashbucklers). The period drama and growing friendship between a suicidal actor and an upbeat little girl is relatively standard, although very well done. I can't find a source for the imagery except the apparently deeply disturbed mind of Tarsem Singh (the guy who did The Cell a while back).

So let's talk imagery. Fantastic, sweeping desolate landscapes, shot in beautifuly artistic compositions. Strange buildings and objects, lots of simple geometric shapes, and vibrant, conflicting colors. The scenery is so striking it nearly overwhelmes the action happening in front of it, and certainly would if the heroes weren't decked out in nearly as bizarre a fashion.

There was much more comedy in the fantasy portion than I expected, but it worked well. Don't expect this to be as serious as The Cell, because it's really not. It's serious when it needs to be, but not much more than that, and that's okay. The emotional scenes are very well done, and in great contrast to the fantasy.

I need to see this movie again, it's as simple as that. It's an amazing mix of good drama and insanely creative fantasy. It'll be criminal if this doesn't get a wide release.