October 28, 2008

The Fall

I stayed up last night to watch a movie that had been sitting on my tv for quite some time. In retrospect, why did I wait so long to watch it? The Fall is stunning to see, and it's one of my favorite movies of the year (not that that's saying much, in and of itself). It will no doubt be best known for its look, and I'd certainly throw it into the mix for costumes and art direction awards. But apart from being a visual marvel it's also a sweet story of two injured people, and the dreamy world they create through storytelling. And it features Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies' The Pie Maker) at his most appealing. To get a sense of its scope and spirit, consider the opening and closing paragraphs of Roger Ebert's review.

Tarsem's "The Fall" is a mad folly, an extravagant visual orgy, a free-fall from reality into uncharted realms. Surely it is one of the wildest indulgences a director has ever granted himself. Tarsem, for two decades a leading director of music videos and TV commercials, spent millions of his own money to finance "The Fall," filmed it for four years in 28 countries and has made a movie that you might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it ...

At this point in reviews of movies like "The Fall" (not that there are any), I usually announce that I have accomplished my work. I have described what the movie does, how it looks while it is doing it, and what the director has achieved. Well, what has he achieved? "The Fall" is beautiful for its own sake. And there is the sweet charm of the young Romanian actress Catinca Untaru, who may have been dubbed for all I know, but speaks with the innocence of childhood, working her way through tangles of words. She regards with equal wonder the reality she lives in, and the fantasy she pretends to. It is her imagination that creates the images of Roy's story, and they have a purity and power beyond all calculation. Roy is her perfect storyteller, she is his perfect listener, and together they build a world.

The rest of Ebert's review will give you a fuller sense of the project. I give it a thumbs up too.

Posted by armand at October 28, 2008 05:56 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies


Comments

I think I have that on my netflix list. Lee Pace is also in "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day". Have you gotten around to watching that yet?

Posted by: kikimonster at October 28, 2008 10:35 PM | PERMALINK

Yeah, that was another thing that sat on my tv for weeks before I watched it. It's not bad, but it's not all that special either. Amy Adams is the best part of it - especially in her early scenes. The whole screwball situation of her balancing guys, planning days, getting last night's guy out before the next guy arrived, while at once both oblivious to and dependent on the strict and starving Miss Pettigrew, Adams really was quite good. But there's not all that much to the film as a whole. A B- I guess.

Posted by: Armand at October 29, 2008 09:38 AM | PERMALINK

Amy Adams seriously annoyed me through most of that movie until Lee Pace showed up. I would give it a C. Sorry!

Posted by: kikimonster at October 29, 2008 11:22 AM | PERMALINK

B-/C, not a huge difference in our views.

And I can see people finding Adams annoying - but hey, that was the character. Once The Pie Maker turned up I thought they became total bores - which was really unfortunate given the fine cast involved.

Posted by: Armand at October 29, 2008 01:58 PM | PERMALINK
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