Review of The Fall (2006) by Paul S — 06 Oct 2010

The short and sweet: visuals 100%, story line 50%, execution 30%. But that's only scraping the surface of this surreal film that is part Wizard of Oz, and part Baron Maunchausen. Where it fails is in not getting nearly enough emotional mileage out of the lost love aspect. Potentially poignant moments are lost amidst epic backdrops and scenic splendor.

I admire the cinematography and what the director was attempting to do, but ultimately, while reaching for something grand, he fell well short - in part a victim of the film's own tale within a tale device.

Imagine a very young girl who is in hospital recovering from a broken arm. She discovers a man with shattered legs who is more emotionally damaged by the loss of his girlfriend (the whys and wherefores of this are never fully examined, much to the film's discredit). He sees in her a way in which to procure enough drugs to commit suicide, so he catches her interest by telling her a tale.

The tale itself is a combination of a young girl's imaginings and the storyteller's weaving of parts of his own story and surroundings, thus some of the surrounding charactors become charactors in the story, ala Wizard of Oz.

This gives the film a surreal nature, augmented by the incredible scenery and stark imagery. There are some truly wonderous scenes here, but they and the amazing costume design only manage to raise the bar to barely fresh. The climatic ending "battle" sequences fall flat and the final confrontation is laughable.

I also found the young girl's accent and lines to be ofttimes garbled and uninteligible, making the black and white coda a big huh? momemt for me.