The Pelican’s Perch

If some big publication took a quote from my professional review of this movie, it’d probably be something like this.

“One of the most visually stunning, beautiful movies I’ve ever seen with a simple plot that centers around storytelling itself and taps into a childhood sense of imagination that is found in all of us.”

Ooh, I like that.  I wish I could read the rest of my imaginary professional review, but I guess all we’ll get is whatever I come up with next.  The Fall, Tarsem Singh’s (The Cell) latest masterpiece, is a simple story at it’s core about the power of storytelling.  Roy, played perfectly by Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace, is a stuntman in 1920’s Los Angeles that finds himself paralyzed in a hospital after an accident on the set.  Being temporarily out of work and a mess emotionally overall knowing he’ll most likely never work again, let alone walk, the idea of suicide enters his mind.  At the same time though, comes young Alexandria, who is also in the hospital getting her broken arm treated.

It’s during their first meeting in Roy’s room, which Alexandria randomly finds when looking for something she lost, that the storytelling begins.  Each character meets everyday for different reasons.  Roy, with nothing left to lose, tells the story of five mythical heroes and their wonderful, yet dangerous adventures, in hopes that he can keep Alexandria around both as company, and more importantly as his legs to the medicine room, where he can send her eventually to get whatever medicine he needs in order to kill himself.  Alexandria, on the other hand, finds Roy intriguing, and his story exciting in her boring world inside the hospital walls.  Once the story begins, Roy’s gloomy state of mind mixed with Alexandria’s vivid imagination, leads us on an adventure with the heroes that’s both beautifully vivid with breathtaking scenery and lavish costumes (Alexandria’s view), and dark and depressing with death, confusion, and villains, that the heroes must overcome.

As I said before, when you think back on the movie after seeing it, you realize how simple the plot really was.  A man telling a story to a little girl, with each having their own motives to keep the story going.  But, where the movie really won me over was the numerous themes found throughout the movie.  The innocence of childhood.  The power of storytelling.  The fragility of life and the power one person, even as small as a little girl, can have on one’s life.  All these themes are hidden in plain site during the Fall and give you plenty to think and talk about after the first viewing.  And, if you’re like me, you’ll be dying to see it again the minute the movie finishes.

Besides the story, the vivid imagery, and the underlying themes, the actors’ performances themselves are just as crucial to the success of this movie as anything else.  Lee Pace balances suicidal, bedridden man at the end of his rope with powerful, fearless hero as the masked bandit perfectly.  Some of the later scenes that find Pace nearly breaking down during the story, realizing he’s that close to killing himself, are some of the more powerful scenes I’ve seen in recent memory.

Alexandria, played by Romanian child actress Catinca Untaru, is the first reason I tell people to go see this movie.  This was her first movie, and on top of how amazing her performance was for it being her first movie, we also were told before the movie at our local arthouse, that she doesn’t know English, so they would tell her how to say each line in English and then film the scene, with her having little idea what she was actually saying.  I was wondering whether I should bring that fact up, as some of my friends said they couldn’t help but imagine the director right off camera telling her what to say each scene, but I never thought of it, and it’s a pretty neat factoid to think about after seeing the movie.  Also, and this may be even better, apparantly Catinca understood something wrong as they explained the movie to her on set, and thought Pace was actually sick the entire movie, and not just acting.  So, one of the reasons her performance is so believable during the more emotional scenes, is because she actually did believe he was sick, and had no idea until after all the filming that he was just acting.  It’s a funny mix up, but I’m glad it happened, because she did a great job.

So, after that overly-long review, full of all sorts of “why you should see this movie” facts and descriptions, if you’re still up in the air whether you should see the movie, well, then I can’t do much more for you.  I should’ve stopped the review about three paragraphs ago, but I found myself with so much to say.  It’s one of those movies I’ll pick up on dvd the day it comes out (and blu-ray once I’m rich), and watch for years to come.  It’s that good.  It’s a tough battle for best movie of the year at the moment, between the Fall, Wall-E, and the Dark Knight, but I can say one thing about the Fall, I doubt you’ve ever seen a movie quite like it.  And coming from me, who’s seen every movie under the Sun, that’s saying something.

The Fall
Perch Score: 9.546/10

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Official Site (hi-res trailer here)/ IMDB
Some movie clips and a featurette
Roger Ebert’s rave review

P.S.  I forgot to mention that there are no CGI Special Effects in the whole movie.  After you see the movie and how amazing the scenery and cinematography are, you’ll find that extra fact truly amazing.