The Fall [Blu-ray]

A movie stuntman (Lee Pace from "Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day") in early 1920's Los Angeles is laid-up from a serious fall and is suicidal. An inquisitive little girl (amazingly cute Catinca Untaru) begins asking him questions and before anyone realizes it, he begins to tell her fanciful stories. Director Tarsem Singh channels Spielberg with his amazing and enormously grand cinematography. The loosely told love story with wild adventurers, heroes and princesses is shown in colorfully large scale in dramatic places. From crystal clear waters of an ocean reef to sand deserts and the Taj Mahal, the look is nothing short of mesmerizing (ever seen an elephant swim in a lush reef filmed from underneath?) The despondent stuntman tells the story in hopes of getting the young girl to procure him a bottle of lethal morphine. In the process, his story grows and progresses into wild and visually arresting backdrops. Costumes and characters are played out in over twenty countries with no CGI effects - all the visuals were done with thousands of extras and enormous outdoor sets. The story of the stuntman and the little girl takes on its own life and the two intertwine with dramatic and endearing results. The ending is rich, clever and more than satisfying. This is a film that has to be seen to be believed. They just don't make them like this anymore.

The non-CGI scenery and the acting of the child antagonist make it worth a watch. The interweaving of the "fairy-tale" story line and the "real life" characters has been done before, but it works here.

This is an excellent film for anyone interested in phenomenal cinematography, dazzling shots taken at real locations across the globe (none of the locations are enhanced or created by CGI), and a curious little tale that a newly paraplegic stuntman tells a young girl with a broken arm at the hospital about 5 men who have sworn revenge on the evil governor Odious.

The visuals in the film are worth spending the extra cash on Blu-Ray over the DVD version, especially if you have a fairly up-to-date television with 1080p. A fairly good home theater system would also be recommended as some of the film's music really takes you into the film. Tarsem has created (a little self-indulgent and pretentious, perhaps) such a visual masterpiece that Roger Ebert has put it best: "You might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it."