Film: Tḥe Fạll
Directed by Tạrsẹm Sįnġh
USA (2006)
Fantasy/Adventure
11 pạṛts/110 mins
Synopsis:
In this tale of a hospitalized paraplegic (Lee Pace) with a curious knack for storytelling, a movie stuntman unable to free himself from his sterile confines, crafts a tale in which tḥe immobile patient's deepest fears form tḥe basis of a dark story that he shares with his young companion -- a little girl (Catinca Untaru) who visits his room as she recovers from a nasty fạll. As tḥe eerie tale unfolds, reality and fantasy gradually merge to form a strange world in which anything is possible and where tḥe end of the story could have bigger implications in real life.
Review:
Tḥe Fạll was filmed over four years in 23 countries and Tạrsẹm, a successful director of music videos and commercials, put up tons of his own money to make it. While its not exactly what one would consider a mainstream film by any means, its has an undeniable emotional pull and tḥe opportunity to appeal to a much wider audience than it has been given the opportunity to, especially as an alternative to summer blockbusters.
So is tḥe man who conjures up aesthetically pleasing images that are specifically designed to get us to buy things also capable of carrying off a story with genuine soul and character development? Tḥe answer to this often-asked question is very simple: Yes. Tạrsẹm avoids computer generated graphics as much as possible to create a look that is almost exclusively in-camera.
I think on some subliminal level, this approach pays off because, as far out as the imagery he presents is, it always feels like it is actually there. It actually exists, in some form or another. Tḥe more CGI that becomes common in movies, tḥe more likely we are to feel when it's not being used, on some level. As fantastic as the story sequences in "Tḥe Fạll" are, we are grounded by the fact that characters we believe in have created them, and they have happened right there in front of our eyes.
Tḥe bottom line is that Tạrsẹm does not disappoint. What seems to be a light fantasy tale about an adult spinning a yarn for a child transcends, and instead becomes a story within which characters tell stories to one another, but itself is primarily about storytelling. Meta enough for you? It's not just children's tales...it's the stories we tell each other, the stories we tell ourselves. How it's the fiction we wrap things in that helps us cope and how we build worlds to clothe tḥe real world in so we can bear it better.
Both tḥe principles actors in tḥe film--Pace and Untaru--have an unusual chemistry that is so interesting and real, it absolutely drives the fantasy sequences. Her reactions are so unaffected it's as if she's not even working off of a script. Sometimes she stumbles over her words, searching for tḥe right way to communicate with Roy, just as a little girl who is new to the country would. Background on Alexandria is sketchy, but we do know that her house was burned down when she was younger and her father now occupies an iconic place in her dreams. Tḥe moments between her and Roy are more than just sweet; they take on an almost tragic tone from the beginning because we suspect Roy's ulterior motives while Alexandria does not.
Pace delivers a compassionate performance, while Untaru (a Romanian child who was 7 years old at tḥe time of shooting) has that blend of curiosity, wonderment, practicality and sarcasm that only comes from a combination of great direction and natural instinct. Through tḥe symbolism those two actors bring to their characters' stories, the movie soars on its message of hope: Tḣe empowerment of fiction in our own lives is that we can edit our own story and choose our own adventures.
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Tḥe Ḟạll pạŗt 9by alchemistkx306 views
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