I just got back from "The Fall". This is its first day in wide release (which means one theater in Chicago), I had been looking forward to it for months now. "The Fall" met my expectations and gave me a new look at movies and the world. That is really kind of a lame and formulaic intro, but I need something before I can get into the real review of this extraordinary film.
The trailer alone recalls to one the quotes you see on the DVD box of a movie. Quotes like 'visually arresting' 'a masterpiece' 'visually stunning' 'fantastic' and the like. But you really have no idea until you see the movie and then also know that everything in it, all the locations all the costumes et cetera, are 100 percent real. Suddenly you are seeing the world a new way.
The visuals are something I really do want to talk about. But the only real way to describe this movie in particular is to see it yourself. It is so off the charts of anything ever seen before that to see the whole thing is the only way. In addition, much as I would like to describe and discuss the visuals, there are other things about this movie that are important and interesting to discuss. This is a bit of a departure, as in previous reviews I have spent time on the style and colors of a movie. But "The Fall" offers its visuals so freely that, although equally important to a film as a whole, other themes get bogged down. At times in "The Fall", these themes are easy to over look.
Along with all the beauty the movie has, "The Fall" deals primarily with deep and existential themes of colliding experiences and interests. Throughout, there is a sense of two worlds, and a variety of categories the worlds fit in; imagination vs. reality, love vs. exploitation, life vs. death. These conflicts are central to "The Fall" and are embodied in many different ways. Also interesting, is that it is not entirely clear until during the climax that all these things are at work in the movie.
To begin, "The Fall" is almost totally between the two main characters, a crippled stuntman and an immigrant child. The stuntman wants to kill himself. The immigrant girl wants him to continue his story that embodies her life, his life, and the people around them. Already there is a conflict between the characters. And the both of them are always trying to get the other to maintain their agenda. This, the key factor to the movie, conflict between the two is actually symbolized in their dialogue. The two never quite understand what the other is saying and they often interrupt each other. Switching off on what the details of the story are.
The story that is being told, or rather the two stories that are being told to the viewer, are symbolic and represent a conflict. Here, although I did say that there were two, there are actually three. But the viewer does not know this until the very end, something I would rather not ruin (but probably will anyway). All three are congruent, tied together by one. There is the life in the hospital, characterized visually, by the same set of actions, places, colors and so forth. There is the life of the story, characterized, by an always changing set of the above. The world of the imagined ends up being divided between the two main characters, they fight over its presentation. This, however, is where the subtleties really begin.
I really have to ruin the movie at this point to talk about this in the most detail I can. The stuntman who is telling the story, as well as the girl, have agendas invested in how the story effects the world in the hospital. The stuntman wants morphine to kill himself, the little girl looks for the perpetuation of the story. Here is where the changes to the story play a part. The stunt man will make the changes the girl wants, so long as in the hospital she follows his requests. But, at the climax, these come into great conflict. The girl who wants to hear the story, ends up saving this man because, if the story ends happily so can his own life. But he resolutely wants his life to be miserable. This conflict comes when they argue over the events in the story. The voiceover shifts between the two of them. This had been foreshadowed with their person to person dialogue up to that point, some arguing and miscommunication.
Eventually though, the conflict is reconciled in keeping with basic dramatic structure. Order is restored. But the very end brings upon the movie a whole new meaning of their lives up to that point, what they had done, who where the players. I do not want to ruin the ending. Plus I am not entirely sure as to its meaning. It has many possible interpretations. It deals with love, the loss of imagination, the truth of mythology, all this is in the movie.
So to wrap up, and to actually give a review of "The Fall". "The Fall" is a very powerful movie. It has this existentialism and symbolism deeply rooted in it, but it couples it beautifully with only the most amazing visuals in a movie. "The Fall" has no failings in my opinion. Sometimes it puts the viewer in a position he may not like, but it lets one see and feel elements that are impossible other wise. I highly recommend this movie. It represents allot of things, a true marriage of a great film like beauty and plot and meaning. It keeps an amount of action and intension. And it is all real, a glimmer of hope that movies are not to be totally one with the computer. "The Fall" flies above other films as a true testament to the art of the cinema.