Visually stunning film starts out in 1920's Los Angeles, where a 5-year-old immigrant named Alexandria stays at a hospital after falling from an orange tree and breaking her arm. As she begins to recover and explores the wards, she comes across a young man named Roy (Lee Pace,) a Hollywood stuntman who was injured trying to impress his girlfriend. Grieving over her leaving him and his troubles with his movie corporation, he entertains Alexandria with a vivid story about a group of five heroes bent on revenge against the evil Judge Odious.
We are taken to an unspecified time and place, where the group tries to escape from an island the judge has marooned them on. They are all after him for different reasons, but join up in order to defeat him. The main characters are
(1) The Masked Bandit, the hero, who is trying to save his twin brother from Judge Odious and his men. In Alexandria's imagination he resembles Roy.
(2) Charles Darwin (Leo Bill), a scientist, is obviously the intellectual of the group, and he is after Judge Odious because he killed a butterfly. He does, however, seem to be a few cards short of a full deck, as he discusses scientific theorems with his beloved monkey, Wallace.
(3) Oda Benga (Marcus Wesley) is a former slave whose brother died of heat exhaustion in the fields. He is physically fit but not educated, due to the fact that he's worked all his life.
There are two other heroes, Luigi, an Italian explosives expert, and an unnamed indian. One of the interesting things about this movie is that the director never loses sight of the idea that the adventure Roy tells Alexandria is a story, and so it is flexible in the hands of the teller and the listener. Roy's 'indian' is apparently Native American, being that he uses words like 'squaw' and 'wigwam.' Alexandria, who doesn't know the terms, pictures him as a native from India, complete with bright clothes and a full beard. Although it isn't accurate, that is how Alexandria perceives the character, so that is how we see him.
As the story reaches it's climax, it becomes clear to the viewer that Roy's intentions are not as clear as he wants Alexandria to believe. In fact, the morphine he continually requests that she steals is not to 'help him sleep,' but rather a method of suicide, and he is telling the story to convince Alexandria to help him kill himself. Also, Roy's story begins to bear resemblance to his own life.
This movie is almost worth seeing entirely for the brilliant cinematography, which was filmed over a period of 4 years in 18 different countries. If skillful camerawork isn't your thing though, there's still plenty to recommend it. It's consistently intriguing, alternating between real life and the fantasy reality that Roy has created. Even though some reviewers complain that there was little empathy for the characters, others (myself included) were genuinely involved with the story and disappointed when- oh, never mind. Watch it yourself. Although character development isn't the movie's main priority, it generates enough sympathy for the characters (both real and imagined) to keep you interested.
I do however have a few quibbles- well namely, one. Halfway through the movie, they include short sequence that is so out of context with the rest of the story that I scratched my head over how it got there. It felt like it was shoved in to add some flavor to the film. I'm not sure why this was necessary, as there's plenty of plot line here to use. As it is, the clip feels like an early draft of a surreal short film somebody forgot to remove from the major movie.
"The Fall," all in all, is a very unique and rewarding film experience. It's different from everything I've ever seen, and that's part of why I like it. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get away from standard Hollywood fare. It certainly isn't without it's flaws, but you have to admire the directors fierce originality (Rated R.)
We are taken to an unspecified time and place, where the group tries to escape from an island the judge has marooned them on. They are all after him for different reasons, but join up in order to defeat him. The main characters are
(1) The Masked Bandit, the hero, who is trying to save his twin brother from Judge Odious and his men. In Alexandria's imagination he resembles Roy.
(2) Charles Darwin (Leo Bill), a scientist, is obviously the intellectual of the group, and he is after Judge Odious because he killed a butterfly. He does, however, seem to be a few cards short of a full deck, as he discusses scientific theorems with his beloved monkey, Wallace.
(3) Oda Benga (Marcus Wesley) is a former slave whose brother died of heat exhaustion in the fields. He is physically fit but not educated, due to the fact that he's worked all his life.
There are two other heroes, Luigi, an Italian explosives expert, and an unnamed indian. One of the interesting things about this movie is that the director never loses sight of the idea that the adventure Roy tells Alexandria is a story, and so it is flexible in the hands of the teller and the listener. Roy's 'indian' is apparently Native American, being that he uses words like 'squaw' and 'wigwam.' Alexandria, who doesn't know the terms, pictures him as a native from India, complete with bright clothes and a full beard. Although it isn't accurate, that is how Alexandria perceives the character, so that is how we see him.
As the story reaches it's climax, it becomes clear to the viewer that Roy's intentions are not as clear as he wants Alexandria to believe. In fact, the morphine he continually requests that she steals is not to 'help him sleep,' but rather a method of suicide, and he is telling the story to convince Alexandria to help him kill himself. Also, Roy's story begins to bear resemblance to his own life.
This movie is almost worth seeing entirely for the brilliant cinematography, which was filmed over a period of 4 years in 18 different countries. If skillful camerawork isn't your thing though, there's still plenty to recommend it. It's consistently intriguing, alternating between real life and the fantasy reality that Roy has created. Even though some reviewers complain that there was little empathy for the characters, others (myself included) were genuinely involved with the story and disappointed when- oh, never mind. Watch it yourself. Although character development isn't the movie's main priority, it generates enough sympathy for the characters (both real and imagined) to keep you interested.
I do however have a few quibbles- well namely, one. Halfway through the movie, they include short sequence that is so out of context with the rest of the story that I scratched my head over how it got there. It felt like it was shoved in to add some flavor to the film. I'm not sure why this was necessary, as there's plenty of plot line here to use. As it is, the clip feels like an early draft of a surreal short film somebody forgot to remove from the major movie.
"The Fall," all in all, is a very unique and rewarding film experience. It's different from everything I've ever seen, and that's part of why I like it. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get away from standard Hollywood fare. It certainly isn't without it's flaws, but you have to admire the directors fierce originality (Rated R.)
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