This past weekend I watched a little-know movie called "The Fall". This is a film about a young girl at a hospital who befriends one of the other patients. It starts Lee Pace as Roy, the man confined to his hospital bed, and Catinca Untaru as Alexandria, the little girl with a broken arm. It is set in the 20's. Alexandria visits Roy so that he can tell her a fictional story about a band of heroes on a quest for revenge. It was reminiscent of "The Princess Bride", but with a lot more "grit". I am having a really hard time trying to put my feeling about this movie into words. I wasn't blown away by it, but it was very interesting. This movie has some very stunning visuals. They alone might be enough to make this movie worth watching. The only other word I can think of to describe this movie is "charming". It focuses on this theme of childhood innocence contrasted against the pessimism & cynicism of adulthood. I definitely won't sit here and strongly recommend you watch it, but there are some really great scenes. There is one scene shortly after the two main characters meet. Alexandria is in Roy's bed with him, and he asks her to play a little game. He wants her to go to the end of the bed and touch one of his toes. He gueses the incorrect toe and she immediately moved her hand to that toe and tells him he is correct. He asks if she is lying, but she insists that was the toe she was touching the entire time. It was very powerful scene showing how this young girl could sense that this man needed hope, and she couldn't crush that by telling him he had been wrong. There are a few other scenes in "real life" that are also very powerful. However, most of this movie takes place in the fantasy world of this story. We are seeing it through the imagination of the young girl, and how she interprets the words of the story. This is where the fantastical visuals are coming from. As we are in this fantasy world more and more I found it hard to follow exactly what was going on. Nothing has to be linear or make sense, and a lot of times for me it didn't. I am sure there was a lot of symbolism I was completely missing. I should probably watch it again, but I don't know if I really want to do that. When I watched the movie I was in the mood to just sit back and be entertained without having to think about it too much. It does that, but the true impact of the story, and how it is presented, requires a little more thought. The acting in this movie was pretty good. I really liked the performance by the 7 year old Catinca Untaru. Without her the movie could have been a lot worse.~3 stars for this decent movie. It is not mainstream, and it might be kinda hard to get into.
-deric
Filed Under: Drama