The Fall

The Fall  is a fairy tale really and it tells two stories. It's set in the age of silent film and a young stuntman named Roy has fallen from a railroad trellis and has broken both of his legs, the same day his girlfriend dumps him. Needless to say he's having a bad day. Later after he's taken to a local hospital he meets a little girl named Alexandria (who's there healing from a broken arm). He begins to tell her a story about five heroes who are out to defeat the evil Gov. Odious. Everyone of our heroes has been greatly wronged by the Governor, they've each lost wives, brothers, and friends to his wickedness. It's not long before Alexandria is totally enamored with Roy, he's become a sort of father figure to her. So when he asks her to do him a favor, she's easily persuaded. He wants her to break into the infirmary and stealing him some more Morphine. But, well, she's five. When he wrote down the word Morphine for her, he wrote in all capital letters and she thought the "E" was a three. So she sneaks in and steals him exactly three pills. He's not super thrilled. But he can't hurt her feelings, he still needs her to get him more drugs. So he continues the story. The five heroes are getting closer and closer to finding Odious. But every time it seems Roy is getting close to the end of the story, he puts the brakes on, and he wants her get something else for him.

He sends her back again. Back to the infirmary. So little Alexandria sneaks back in to steal him some more pills, just so he'll finish the story. She climbs up on top of the cupboard where the drugs are kept, but she's too small. She can't quite reach, she stretches and stretches. Then she places her little foot on the next shelf to get higher but instead her foot lands on a bottle that's tipped over. She slips. Down she falls to the hard concrete floor below.  Next time we see poor little Alexandria shes on an operating table, her head all bandaged up. She wants to see Roy, so he's wheeled in to see her. He looks almost worse then she does, obviously the guilt has gotten to him. She wants him to finish the story. He doesn't want to. He tells her it wouldn't be right, the story was a lie, an excuse for him to get her to steal for him. She doesn't care about that, she wants an ending dammit! So he begins the ending. But his guilt is affecting the story, he wants her to hate him as much as he hates himself. He's killing off her heroes one by one. It's down to the wire, her favorite hero The Masked Bandit is facing off with Gov. Odious... and he's losing. Alexandria cries for Roy to let him live but Roy is determined. He will end this story and she'll hate him when it's done. But he can't stand to see her cry. So The Masked Bandit triumphs over the evil Odious and all is right in the world. Alexandria is as pleased as you can imagine. She still loves Roy and he hates to admit it but he might just love her too.

And we have a happy ending everyone! It really was a great movie, really beautifully made. It was filmed in 18 different countries and the scenery is stunning. Apparently it took four years to film, not really sure why but there it is. It's directed by Tarsem the same man who brought us The Cell. This movie isn't nearly as dark as that but just as wonderfully strange.