Robert Horton is a Scarecrow board member and a longtime film critic. This series of "critic's notes" is chance to highlight worthy films playing locally and connect them to the riches of Scarecrow's collection.
A revival of the 2006 film The Fall has been making the rounds, and lands at SIFF Cinema Downtown (used to be the Cinerama) this week. That’s a fittingly big screen for a big ol’ heap of gloss. I dug out my review of the movie, originally published in The Herald, reprinted below. Whether you agree or disagree with my mixed take on the film, at least I had the good sense to predict its cult status. For me, The Fall was a step up for its director, Tarsem; I hated The Cell.
There should always be a place (and an audience) for movies that are certifiably crazy. "The Fall" is such a movie. I didn't buy this film's hifalutin' pretensions, and its story-within-a-story isn't strong enough to justify all the effort. But boy, is "The Fall" a wild experience.
It begins with a black-and-white, slow-motion, wordless series of images: A high bridge, a train, a river, and the strains of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Only later do we understand this is an accident on a movie set.
After this sequence, the film reverts to color. It's the 1920s, and a movie stuntman (engaging Lee Pace) has been injured. Apparently he can't walk, and apparently he is lovelorn. While he is stuck in his hospital bed, a five-year-old girl distracts him. She's played by Catinca Utaru, one of the cutest kid actors since Shirley Temple. Pace and Utaru have a warm chemistry together, in contrast to the artificiality of the rest of the movie. The stuntman indulges the kid by spinning a tale: This story, of five adventurers on a quest through exotic landscapes, will fill much of the running time of "The Fall."
Shot with storybook grandeur (in over 20 countries, amazingly), this yarn is an all-purpose epic, far too generic and vague to actually generate much interest. Pace plays one of the adventurers, a pirate type, joined on his quest by an escaped African slave, Indian and Italian characters, and Charles Darwin. Huh?
Eye-popping images tumble out of the film, from grand castles to tiny islands to elephants swimming in the open sea. These stupendous visuals come courtesy of single-named director Tarsem, who has a long career as a maker of music videos and TV commercials.
Also one feature, the loathsome Jennifer Lopez thriller "The Cell." Tarsem is obviously a collector of beautiful pictures, but this movie plays like a TV ad for storytelling, where all the costumes are impeccable and all the men are buff.
"The Fall" is based on an obscure Bulgarian movie called "Yo Ho Ho," but you could also describe it as "The Princess Bride" for production designers. I think it doesn't work, and it totally falls apart at the end. But I look forward to it being discovered by a passionate cult of eye-candy worshippers.
October 25, 2024
