Dave's Blog

{4.5/5} “You always stop at the same part, where it’s very beautiful. And interesting.”

Alexandria is a young girl who fell and broke her arm and she’s at the hospital. She meets a man named Roy, also a patient, who tells her a story about Alexander the Great. Roy is paralyzed from the waist down from a stunt he did for a movie. The next day Roy tells her a much longer story — about a group of five men who have all vowed for different reasons to kill Governor Odious.

The Fall was released in 2006. It’s based on the Bulgarian film Yo Ho Ho.

During the opening credits is a black and white scene in slow motion with the second movement from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. I was a bit worried. A movie has to be the highest quality to deserve Beethoven’s music — not like Zardoz. But once the story proper starts I wasn’t worried.

The movie takes place many years ago, when horses pulled buggies. Roy is a stunt man in the new industry of motion pictures, and he just lost his girlfriend. Alexandria helps her family pick oranges.

What movie is this one like? In general structure it’s like a combination of The Princess Bride and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. But the person telling the story is a different character and the details of the story are different. And it’s not a comedy.

Filming locations included South Africa, India, Fiji, and Argentina. It has a stunning look that’s much different than your average movie.

Catinca Untaru, in her first movie role, does an amazing job as Alexandria. A few actors play two roles — one in the real world and one in the story.

What kind of story would a suicidal man tell a five-year-old girl? Watch and find out. There were parts in the middle I wasn’t so sure about, but in the end I’m glad I watched it.

The adventure-movie music is by Krishna Levy (8 Women).

Lee Pace (the TV show Pushing Daisies) plays Roy.

The movie was directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell).