Entry#188: The Fall

Trailer

One of the biggest compliments to a filmmaker, besides an Oscar nomination, would be an endorsement by a recognized and acclaimed director. Plenty of directors have gotten their start this way and the tradition continues to this day. Recently, for example, Peter Jackson (Lord of The Rings, Heavenly Creatures) kick-started Neil Blomkamp's career by backing Neil's directorial debut, District 9. To have someone support your work like that is truly an honor and an easy jump-start for a film career. Because of how prestigious a director/sponser is, I was quite surprised to find out that The Fall had TWO well-known directors backing it up. Both David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation.), apparently, helped finance the film because they believed in it so much. That's saying something for an otherwise unknown filmmaker.

The Fall chronicles the relationship between a hospitalized young girl, Alexandria, and her new acquaintance and storyteller, Roy Walker. After a harsh fall, Roy finds himself bedridden, with his only company consisting of seemingly angry friends and an imaginative Romanian girl (aka Alexandria). As times passes and Alexandria visits more often, Roy discovers that he's slowly becoming addicted to the morphine that's been prescribed to him. With the addiction growing, Roy uses Alexandria to bring him more "sleeping pills" in exchange for a creative and lushious fairy tale. Reality and fantasy blur, though, as Roy's state of mind and Alexandria's imagination interweave with one another in the fairy tale.

The cinematography of the film is very well-done and artistic. Thanks to the use of color and conventional film methods, the director is able to create two distinct worlds with differing visual styles. The 'real' world, for example, relies on orange and gray coloring to portray the reality of 1920's America. Menawhile, the fantasy world is filled with every color imaginable to show off the power of imagination. Both worlds are visually-appealing and showcase the hard work that went into this film. The best sequence, though, has to be the film's opening credits. Those moments are so well-structured and so perfectly compositied that it feels like watching a living painting. Sharp, chiche, and creative, the visuals are a great component of the film.

The characters, though, are only decent to pretty good. We get to know Roy and Alexandria, but only on a limited basis. For instance, Alexandria is naive and charming, as virtually all little girls are, but we don't really get to know her character. If we compared the film with Pan's Labyrinth, a film with similar fairy-tale themes, we'd see that Alexandria feels flat while Ofelia, the main character of Pan's Labyrinth, is a more well-rounded and interesting character. The same can pretty much be said of Roy. However, I'm a bit iffy on the fairy tale characters. They're supposed to be simle, that's granted, but they can feel very generic in this film; almost like a cast from a below-average JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) video game. All in all, the characters are interesting but only half-developed.

That said, the film still retains a fascinating narrative and a stylish and emotional atmosphere. The story flows quite smoothly and the interweaving of reality and fantasy proves to be just as interesting as it is emotionally-investing. Heck, I thought the characters were only "pretty good" but found myself in tears during the last twenty minutes of the film. The atmosphere really nailed that wodner that comes with fairy tales AND the harsh realities of life - and that isn't an easy task by any means.

I really liked The Fall. The characters were only decent but the atmosphere and lovely visuals definitely make up for it.