Standing Tall

I mentioned in another recent post that I was keen to look up a film called The Fall, directed by Tarsem Singh. It's almost a cliché these days for a director to be referred to as 'a visionary' but, having now seen that film (his second Hollywood outing, which he co-wrote, produced and directed, and which hit the screens six years after The Cell), I honestly believe that title is well-deserved by Singh.

It's another tale of alternate realities - so very much in vogue right now - but even its elements of high fantasy are grounded in its real world. Picture a little girl, bored and lonely, in hospital because her arm was broken in a fall. By chance, one day, she meets a movie stuntman, also injured in a fall (jumping from a rail bridge onto a horse's back... though, supposedly, the star for whom he substituted performed the better take anyway). He dazzles her with an epic story of five heroes, each sworn to kill the same villain for the wrongs he wrought upon them, but punctuates the narrative by asking small favours of the enraptured child. It's here that the story - both that of the girl and her new friend, the raconteur, and his tall tale of derring do - take a darker turn.

Lee Pace was a name completely unknown to me, but his performance as damaged stuntman Roy Walker and his imagined Red Bandit was understated, yet very powerful. Roy is facing the very real possibility that he'll never work again after his first job (one of his friends even going to far as to try to convince him that losing a limb isn't so bad!), he's heartbroken and he's suicidal. The Red Bandit, meanwhile, has sworn to avenge his brother's death at the hands of Governor Odious, and comes together with four other heroes (an African former slave, an Indian warrior, an Italian demolitions man... and Charles frikkin' Darwin, complete with huge furry coat, bowler hat and a hyper-intelligent monkey sidekick named Wallace) when all five are exiled by Odious to a small island.

After escaping, they encounter a mystic (something like a dryad) who directs them on their way toward their hated enemy and further adventure, and then a beautiful princess (Justine Waddell, better known to me as Estella in a TV adaptation of Great Expectations, also featuring Ioan Gruffudd and Charlotte Rampling) who is betrothed to the evil Governor.

For all the story's high adventure, this is no high-octane action movie. What set-pieces there are, are framed as works of art, rather than celebrations of testosterone and steel. Transitions between some scenes were so stunning that I sat there thinking "what the fuck just happened there? Did I really just see that?", and not paying attention as the new scene unfolded... And then there's the sudden switch to stop-motion animation for the scene following little Alexandria's accident in the Dispensary. Jarring and incongruous though it seemed at first, I ended up crying over it - somehow it was more powerful with dolls than it might have been with the live cast.

The scene following that, with Roy trying to confess his failings to the smitten child who's desperate for a happy ending, is utterly heart-breaking. He sets about tearing down the fantasy he built for her, while she begs him not to kill the hero. Meanwhile, he's struggling not only with his suicidal impulses, but with his guilt over sending the girl on the 'errand' that led to her new injury.

And all of this is presented in Tarsem Singh's trademark beautiful, opulent technicolour (the real world is rather muted and cold compared to the fantasy, but the links between them are clear, in the characters, the scenery, and even a few props), and with similarly wild costumes to Singh's other movies.

Honestly, I'm torn between wanting him to 'DIREKT MOAR FLIMS NAOW!!!1!1!', and to keep them as few and far between as required to keep them as magnificent and as passionately executed as The Fall.

This, dear reader, is what Cinema was invented for.