Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 9-SEP-2008
Media Type: DVDRoger Ebert proclaimed it “one of the most extraordinary films I’ve ever seen,” and there’s no denying the avalanche of wild images in The Fall: grand castles, desert vistas, elephants swimming in the open ocean. Commercial and music-video director Tarsem has piled these visions into an elaborate remake of an obscure Bulgarian film, Yo Ho Ho, which is anchored in (but by no means limited to) a quiet hospital during the silent-movie era. A stunt man (Lee Pace) is laid up with leg injuries, and an eye-popping black-and-white prologue (utterly mystifying while we’re watching it) tells us how he got here. Depressed over his disability and a recent lost love, he plans suicide, but is temporarily derailed by the inquisitive friendship of a little girl (Catinca Untaru), to whom he tells wild stories of adventurers and princesses. We see these stories, which is where the dizzying visuals come in. This movie probably won’t inspire many lukewarm responses: either you’ll fall madly for this paean to storytelling magic, or you’ll be suspicious about the parade of pretty pictures, which tend to have a magazine-layout sheen. The movie certainly has more soul than Tarsem’s yucky previous feature, The Cell, and the scenes between Pace and Untaru (who scores an 11 on the cuteness scale) are genuinely charming. The director actually put a considerable amount of his own money into the production (which shot in over 20 countries), and whether you buy his vision or not, he put his money on the screen. –Robert Horton
Buy “The Fall” For Only $14.85
March 5, 2010
#1
I’m a sucker for anything fantasy or science fiction oriented! I give each and every film the benefit of the doubt! What troubles me so greatly is that The Fall starts out as delightful – and then turns into something very ugly!
Keep in mind this about an innocent and rather naive child somewhere between 8-10 years of age. She is manipulated into assisting an attempted suicide. This is no potential mercy killing, either! It’s about a grown man who will descend into the pits of hell to emotionally scar a rather vulnerable child. He has no self control or conscience! All he cares about is killing himself, so why worry about collateral damage!
Nor is this some backwater hospital. It’s state of the art for the 1920′s! Where famous people and orange-harvesting, migrant workers cross paths. But this “modern” hospital lets a young child run around with impunity, literally sharing a bed with middle aged man who is known to the hospital staff as suicidal. Hey, but its the 1920′s and this crazy non-sense doesn’t raise so-much as an eyebrow!
But when the child, who may have fractured her skull from falling – because she made a second attempt to raid the morphine in an unlocked and unguarded pharmacy – we get to watch this very disturbed man turn his delightful story, that he created from thin air, into a nightmare of gruesome death and destruction. To add insult to injury, we then get to see our young hero start crying hysterically while lying trapped in a hospital bed, no-less, totally at the mercy of this lunatic! If this is not child abuse, I don’t know what is!
At this point, I said to myself, doesn’t this young child actor have any parents? How could they let their rather young daughter act in such a twisted movie? Isn’t this a form of exploitation?
My next thought was: “This is such a sadistic story, and I paid my hard earned money to watch this unmerciful, pain-inflicting non-sense.” I don’t know about you, but that’s not my idea of entertainment!
My only consolation is this god-awful film is currently running in only 1 obscure movie theater in a metropolitan area of well over a million people! Hopefully the Hollywood crew who put this nightmare of a film on the big screen will not make a penny for their efforts!
Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide For The Concerned and This is a Hospital, Not a Zoo!, and Better Living Through Bad Movies, and most importantly, Hospital Stay Handbook: A Guide to Becoming a Patient Advocate for Your Loved Ones
March 5, 2010
#2
This is one of the worst movie I have seen this year. Don’t wast your money and time. I am confused after watching it, no story line, no plot in the movie. the whole movie has no meaning at the end. Nothing!!
Terrible director.
I wasted my $29 on this movie.
March 5, 2010
#3
THIS MOVIE WAS THE MOST SUCKIEST MOVIE I HAD EVER SEEN, HAD TO SHUT IT OFF HALF WAY THROUGH IT
March 5, 2010
#4
I can’t really rate the product as the DVD would not play on my DVD player and was returned for credit.
March 5, 2010
#5
some call this a masterpiece…jeez…it is totaly nuts and boring.very bad acting. stupid story.if not convinced rent it only.good luck…