As Jay Leno said last night, "I found out I have two things that prevent me from seeing Sex and the City,"... "Testicles." So, instead of seeing that, and having seen all the major blockbusters out there this summer, we were forced to scrounge around in the independent film market for a new cinematic experience. We originally looked at going to see Son of Rambow, but the film left the area before we got the chance. However, sight unseen and with very little advanced knowledge, we discovered a movie called The Fall, written and directed by Tarsem - a music video and commercial director most known for the big budget film, The Cell, with J.Lo. We were glad at the discovery.
The film's plot, as thin as it is, still manages to keep the film going for the entire two hour length. It involves Roy, a stunt man in the silent era of Hollywood, who is injured performing a complicated stunt. We come to discover that he is borderline suicidal over the loss of his girlfriend to the film's leading man. He befriends a young migrant worker child (played with dazzling honesty by newcomer, Catinca Utaru) and begins to tell her a story, all in a self-serving effort to get this child to steal him some morphine so that he might commit suicide. The story he tells is a child-like fantasy about a group of bandits who have sworn revenge on the evil Lord Odious and its a thin retelling of the stunt man's life and problems. As the film takes a more sinister and darker tone towards the end, all of these various elements are brought to a head and we realize that the end of the story and the fate of Roy are decidedly intertwined.
Okay... so why three and a half wigs? That's almost as many as I gave Iron Man. As a whole, this film reminded me of what a film school student might make if someone handed him a blank check. The film was in development for 11 years. The director would scout locations while doing commercial and video shoots and then get the owners of these locations to promise to let him come back and shoot there at another point for free. The end result is that this low budget film has some locations that big budget Hollywood movies could only drool over. At one point in the film, I looked up and realized that they were shooting a scene across the street from the Taj Mahal - only it looked bland in comparison to the other more fantastic and real life locations that this film had already used by that point. On locations alone, this film earned the first two wigs.
The cinematography was also incredible. The director of photography wasn't just content with having these amazing locations, he knew what to do with them as well. The opening shot of the accident scene in slow motion is perhaps one of the finest pieces of slow motion work I've seen in a long time. The film is filled with an amazing array of colors and fantastic images that for one one hundredth of the budget and without any special effects, rival the work seen in 300. The cinematography earned it another wig.
But the part that has stuck with me the most is the acting of the young Catinca Utaru - who played the part as real as you will ever see a little girl act. At no point in the movie did I ever think she was acting. (It was later revealed that through a communcations mix-up, the girl was told that the actor playing Roy was really crippled and the girl responded to that with incredible emotional depth). The script, in this case, was a real gem in that it allowed the conversations to be natural in a way that was almost annoying - just two people talking and trying to understand one another. There was a scene in the movie where the girl was being examined by a doctor (she had broken her arm falling from a tree where she was picking fruit) and she was interpreting for her mother who spoke no English. The doctor tells the little girl's mother that the little girl will recover but that the little girl shouldn't be allowed to pick any more fruit. The look on this girl's face was priceless, totally conveying the "Are you nuts! I can't tell my mom that!", while at the same time smiling and pretending to tell her mother exactly what the doctor just said. It was a brilliant scene and really well done. For the girl alone, one half wig.
Okay, that all being said, the biggest problem was with the story. It was exceptionally thin and it was filled with dialog and scenes that you just don't see in regular movies for good reason. There were several dramatic moments that just ended up being laugh out loud funny for the wrong reasons. But for all these flaws, it was still easy to enjoy this film. These film makers weren't just phoning it in for a nice fat paycheck, or trying to please impossible fanboys. This film was a labor of love and it showed, even despite its serious flaws.
If you can see this one on the big screen, go. If not, wait until you can watch it in High-Def. The visuals alone will make this worth the extra wait.
Will Rob says, check it out!
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