Stars:
**
Rating: R for violence
and vibrant bloodshed
Run
Time: 1 hour, 56 minutes
There’s a decent little movie lurking
somewhere deep inside this visual panoply that positively chokes on its own
symbolism.
Director Tarsem Singh (“The Cell”) is
master of the sumptuous guise, each frame saturated in vivid color and sly
innuendo. Innocence appears in the form of full-time hospital patient
Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), an observant 5-year old cherub for whom the
corridors of the cavernous sick ward are a lonely playground.
Alexandria’s explorations reveal an
injured and depressed movie stuntman named Roy Walker (the underrated Lee Pace)
who appears to be reeling over the death of an absent lover. Man and child
strike up a quick friendship based on psychological pain and need.
Roy has an agenda with a Capital A;
pain pills and lots of them. He wheedles Alexandria into his good graces by
virtue of catchy storytelling, encouraging repeat
visits while begging the child for favors involving a hands-off medicine chest.
Weaving a spell of poetic fire Roy
spins tales of an odious and powerful governor who battles a ragtag bunch of
masked bandits (among them a slave, a naturalist and an anarchist) on an exiled
island while black-skinned mystics, water-treading elephants and the ubiquitous
burning trees jockey for vanity project glory.
“Fall” is abstract
to a fault and I cop to some plot confusion. It’s cutting-edge when the focus
is on the here and now – the now a Technicolor 1920s Los Angeles pulsating with
potential -- but the fantasy sequences are flamboyantly egregious; “Altered
States” meets Alfonso Cuarón’s “A Little Princess” without benefit of a
narrative life preserver.
Chemistry between the leads works
some magic and Untaru is a sweet little charmer. His “Apocalypto” on speed
approach aside I can’t help but admire Singh’s offbeat and original approach.
If only I understood it.