Over the past few years, our cinemas have given us a number of "eye candy" films that, unfortunately lacked substance and genuine excitement (Memoirs of a Geisha, Marie Antoinette). Despite their great trailers, the films themselves fell short and plodded along, beautiful but mind numbing. The film that best succeeded (2006's The Fountain) did so barely; I didn't find it boring and I liked parts of it, but I wasn't enthralled by it. Because of this, I was incredibly nervous when I saw the mindblowingly gorgeous trailer for independently released story-telling/fantasy film "The Fall". My gut instinct told me that I would get all excited (which I did), I'd watch the trailer countless times (which I did), and I'd wait anxiously for reviews to instill a sense of unwanted doom in my head (which I did...although the film got a sort of 50-50 split from critics). So then a few hours ago I wandered past the crowd of women getting their reserved tickets for the Sluts and the City Movie and sat down with about 10 other people in a theater, expecting to find my worst fears confirmed within the first 10 minutes of the film. I've never been so grateful that my instinct was wrong. The Fall is magnificent, not just in its visual splendor, but in its (only occaisionally awkward) story telling and character development. One day in a hospital Alexandria (newcomer Cantinca Undaru), a young girl who fell and broke her arm, stumbles upon an adult patient named Roy (Lee Pace) while searching for one of her belongings. As she retrieves it and leaves, Roy asks her if she knows that she's named after Alexander the Great. She shrugs (she's an immigrant and only somewhat speaks English) and he invites her over and tells her a brief story. 
Seeing that she's enchanted (though somewhat puzzled) by it, he tells her to return the next day for a new story; an epic about love and revenge. However, it's not his story alone to tell. As he goes along with it, Alexandria occasionally interrupts and asks questions or makes her own suggestions. Without spoiling too much, as the story builds, it soon turns into a matter of deciding not only whether a character will live, but also a real person. Both Pace and Undaru turn in good performances, the real shocker being Undarua, who's only six and has never acted before; amazingly, she can display a wide variety of emotions and even cry on cue, and it all feels genuine. Even the characters who primarily exist in the story feel genuine which makes parts of the second act that much more inspiring, touching, or even devastating. Of course, this is still an eye candy film, and director Tarsem doesn't hold back at all. Instead of creating beautiful imaginary landscapes with special effects, Tarsem chose to shoot the film in 18 different countries including India, Turkey, and Italy.
In making his fantasy grounded in real locations, the visuals are even more stunning than nearly any special effects design; the brilliant cinematography also enhances the stunning shots of temples, forests, deserts, water, and so on. It's also a stunner in terms of costume design; while it's no fashion show with dozens and dozens of beautiful costumes, all the ones that are shown in the fantasy sequences are gorgeous, most notably a red dress with a lotus shaped head piece.
Complimenting the visuals is the nice (if sometimes bombastic) score, which in addition to original compositions, makes frequent use of the 2nd Movement from Beethoven's 7th Symphony. It's not perfect however; an important subplot that relates to Roy's telling of the story is sometimes told in very hushed voices, and Undaru's thick accent is a times difficult to decipher. Some of the conversations between Pace and Undaru at times get dragged out a bit so that they begin to feel tedious instead of amusing, and some of the moments of humor (many of which work in an odd sort of way) are strangely placed (mostly those in the movie's finale). However as a whole imaginative director Tarsem has given the world something special: a combination of the edit-the-story-on-the-go tactic of "The Princess Bride" along with the darkness and unique visual imagination of fantasies like Pan's Labyrinth (though this is film is much "prettier" than Pan's). It's what we've all been waiting for: a drop dead gorgeous film that balances style with substance. In fact, it may just be one of the most visually arresting films you'll ever see.Grade: A-
Current Nominations:
Best Picture(#1 WINNER/sorry In Bruges), Best Director - Tarsem(#1 WINNER), Best Actor - Lee Pace (#2), Best Actress - Cantinca Undaru(#1 WINNER), Best Original Screenplay (#3), Best Editing (#4), Best Cinematography(#1 WINNER), Best Art Direction(#1 WINNER), Best Costume Design(#1 WINNER), Best Makeup(#1 WINNER), Best Visual Effects (#3), Best Original Score - Krishna Levy(#3), Best Sound Mixing (#3), Best Sound Editing(#4)
Number of 2008 Films Seen: 9
