The Fall (2006)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Anthony L

  
  The Fall is probably one of the most visually impressive films of all time. To say it is beautiful is an understatement. The balance or contrast of reality and fantasy is very well executed, it truly is a feast for the senses. It may be let down ever so slightly by the script, which… More
  The Fall is probably one of the most visually impressive films of all time. To say it is beautiful is an understatement. The balance or contrast of reality and fantasy is very well executed, it truly is a feast for the senses. It may be let down ever so slightly by the script, which for all its boasts of being filmed in 20 different countries is a little bit frustrating. Still, any slight irritations of script and story are more than made up for by the presence of the cutest little girl in the world. Catinca Untaru is adorable and for all the production, visual craft-ship and huge budget - she is easily the best reason to watch.

• Randy T

  
  Colorful and strange. The channeled improvisation between child actress Catinca Untaru and Lee Pace is fantastic, adding a dimension of believability and realism to some rather questionable exchanges of dialogue.

• paul o

  
  The story is so large but never covers any true depth. The scenery is beautiful but in the end goes to waste with such a mediocre plot.

• Fernando Rafael Q

  
  The Fall is the graphic representation of the vivid imagination of a little girl (Catinca Untaru), inspired by the tales told by a Hollywood stuntman who dreams of being a movie star and getting the girl (a remarkable Lee Pace). The narrative is all over the place but visually, this… More
  The Fall is the graphic representation of the vivid imagination of a little girl (Catinca Untaru), inspired by the tales told by a Hollywood stuntman who dreams of being a movie star and getting the girl (a remarkable Lee Pace). The narrative is all over the place but visually, this film is a masterpiece. This majestic picture deserves to be watched, to be seen.

• Jim H

  
  A paralyzed hospital patient befriends a young Romanian girl while telling her an improvised adventure story. Catinca Untaru, who plays Alexandria, is about the cutest on screen child I've seen. Normally I find kids precocious in films and in real life (as Robin from… More
  A paralyzed hospital patient befriends a young Romanian girl while telling her an improvised adventure story. Catinca Untaru, who plays Alexandria, is about the cutest on screen child I've seen. Normally I find kids precocious in films and in real life (as Robin from <i>How I Met Your Mother</i> says, "It's cute that their shoes are small, but beyond that, what's the draw?), but Untaru's Alexandria makes me understand why some grown-ups make that "aw" sound when a child is near. She plays the part with the type of innocence that most adults can't fake, and Lee Pace's character's, Roy, friendship to her is no mystery; she makes Pace's job easy. The film's primary draw is the story within the story, which is rife with great cinematography and some stark visuals. Although I think this aspect of the film suffers from cliche here and there, I thought it seemed as improvised as it was within the storyteller's imagination. By the end, <i>The Fall</i> is about the struggle to maintain optimism despite all that the world throws one's way, and this theme is carried through in a few inspiring moments but mostly heart-breaking ones. Overall, it's a fine film with a precious child actor who must be so sweet she shits chocolate.

• Conner R

  
  Thankfully, Tarsem's follow-up to The Cell is a complete masterpiece and improves on every interesting concept he brought up. This has such a beautiful story going on that the visuals are only enhanced. Most people have to at least say that this is fun to watch. While some may… More
  Thankfully, Tarsem's follow-up to The Cell is a complete masterpiece and improves on every interesting concept he brought up. This has such a beautiful story going on that the visuals are only enhanced. Most people have to at least say that this is fun to watch. While some may not be able to see the truly powerful character interaction and bending of fiction and reality, I definitely had a big connection to it. This movie could've just been set in the Los Angeles part and still would be just as strong and just as good. However, I really do like peeking inside the imagination of Alexandria and seeing how she sees. Her interpretation of the story being told was really fascinating. While I can see how people take this as nonsense, I love it in every way. It's one of those movies you can just geek out over and bask in the fantastical nature of it.

• Sophie B

  
  An extremely aesthetically beautiful piece with a just as beautiful narrative. Although it does seem to get lost and crazy throughout the middle, it progresses wonderfully and finishes on a perfect note. Brilliant performance by Catinca Untaru.

• Jameson W

  
  This is a beautiful film! I love every second of it! This film is an epic fantasy tale with two main storylines: reality (where a man tells a young girl an epic story while they are both staying at a hospital in LA) and the story itself. This brilliant, captivating, epic adventure… More
  This is a beautiful film! I love every second of it! This film is an epic fantasy tale with two main storylines: reality (where a man tells a young girl an epic story while they are both staying at a hospital in LA) and the story itself. This brilliant, captivating, epic adventure took 4 years to film and used locations in over 20 countries including India, South Africa, Namibia....it's a brilliant film that eveyone should experience because I believe there will never be another one like it. This film, overall, gets good reviews. Everyone seems to like it and think it's good. But I am surprised by how many "okay" or "good" opinions there are for this film. It's definitely not the best film I have ever seen, nor is it perfect, but it is absolutely fantastic and worthy of much more praise than I feel it is given. First of all.....the cinematography is brilliant, some of the best I have ever seen. Each scene and every moment of this film is beautiful. Each frame is like art work at its finest. With the use of many wide shots and long distance shots, the scenery of the film is not only unique but beautiful too. Add to that the use of gorgeous building and locations, there's another level of captivating beauty. Also the use of color is brilliant unlike anything I have ever seen before. Each scene is colorful and detailed. The film is a joy and a wonder to watch. The film almost feels surreal at times and, in my opinion, that really shows how brilliant the cinematography, appearance, and art direction of this film really is. It is indescriblable.....you just have to see it for yourself. I also loved Lee Pace and Catinca Untaru. They both give good performances and work fantastic together. Every scene with the two of them together is so believable and touching. Lee Pace's performance really adds to the film; it adds the depthness that adds the important connection between the two storylines and the relationship with the young girl. I love their relationship during the film and the way it changes as the film progresses. I feel like this is the element of the film that people don't grasp completely. As different emotions come to the two of them, it drastically alters, not only the reality storyline, but also the story section of the storyline. It's hard to explain, but I think there's a deeper connection between storylines of the film than the film is accredited for. It's interesting to watch. I recommend this film to everyone! I personally really loved this film, but only you can decide for yourself.

• Eliza N

  
  A multicultural surrealistic epic story about an adventure were darkness, betrayal and love take place. But that's not the main story ,no, that's the fairytale for the little Alexandria which Roy makes up. Extremely moving and funny. The Soundtrack is a masterpiece!

• Daniel J D

  
  Visually, it's great. Beyond that, it's incredibly difficult to take this movie very seriously.

• Cynthia S

  
  I really wanted to like this, but it's not nearly sumptuous enough to make up for being slight and fanciful in a bad way - and 2 hours long to boot. The acting is mostly good. The little girl Catinca Untaru is a natural, but I could barely understand a thing she said. Lee Pace is… More
  I really wanted to like this, but it's not nearly sumptuous enough to make up for being slight and fanciful in a bad way - and 2 hours long to boot. The acting is mostly good. The little girl Catinca Untaru is a natural, but I could barely understand a thing she said. Lee Pace is suitably charming and manipulative, but the story is just not that compelling,... no matter how much bright light and white sand the characters stand around and talk in. Zzzzzzzzzz........

• paul s

  
  The short and sweet: visuals 100%, story line 50%, execution 30%. But that's only scraping the surface of this surreal film that is part Wizard of Oz, and part Baron Maunchausen. Where it fails is in not getting nearly enough emotional mileage out of the lost love aspect.… More
  The short and sweet: visuals 100%, story line 50%, execution 30%. But that's only scraping the surface of this surreal film that is part Wizard of Oz, and part Baron Maunchausen. Where it fails is in not getting nearly enough emotional mileage out of the lost love aspect. Potentially poignant moments are lost amidst epic backdrops and scenic splendor. I admire the cinematography and what the director was attempting to do, but ultimately, while reaching for something grand, he fell well short - in part a victim of the film's own tale within a tale device. Imagine a very young girl who is in hospital recovering from a broken arm. She discovers a man with shattered legs who is more emotionally damaged by the loss of his girlfriend (the whys and wherefores of this are never fully examined, much to the film's discredit). He sees in her a way in which to procure enough drugs to commit suicide, so he catches her interest by telling her a tale. The tale itself is a combination of a young girl's imaginings and the storyteller's weaving of parts of his own story and surroundings, thus some of the surrounding charactors become charactors in the story, ala Wizard of Oz. This gives the film a surreal nature, augmented by the incredible scenery and stark imagery. There are some truly wonderous scenes here, but they and the amazing costume design only manage to raise the bar to barely fresh. The climatic ending "battle" sequences fall flat and the final confrontation is laughable. I also found the young girl's accent and lines to be ofttimes garbled and uninteligible, making the black and white coda a big huh? momemt for me.

• xGary X

  
  A paralyzed stuntman entertains a little girl with fairytales while in hospital with the ulterior motive of tricking her into helping him commit suicide. A great deal has been made of the fact that this film was shot in 20 countries around the globe, but my question would have to be:… More
  A paralyzed stuntman entertains a little girl with fairytales while in hospital with the ulterior motive of tricking her into helping him commit suicide. A great deal has been made of the fact that this film was shot in 20 countries around the globe, but my question would have to be: "Why?" The locations although visually spectacular have no bearing whatsoever on the story and the film amounts to little more than a flick book of postcards of famous places. It's all very nicely shot and the costumes are magnificent, but the so-called "allegory of a broken psyche" is just storytelling as a clumsy and unsophisticated metaphor for the main character's state of mind. The tale itself is like hearing the unfocused, unexciting and unfunny rambling of someone who is terminally sorry for themself while a mildly irritating little girl persistently tugs at your sleeve. The Fall amounts to little more than a collection of pretty pictures as the script is superficial and unengaging as the ornate visuals are just window dressing to disguise what is essentially a poor man's rip off of Pan's Labyrinth.

• Tsubaki S

  
  Effective where pretty much every other "fantasy" film of the last years has failed miserable, creating fantastic visuals and characters that feel right out of a fairy tale. A well balanced cast of actors enhaces the experience, even if the girl ends up being annoying from… More
  Effective where pretty much every other "fantasy" film of the last years has failed miserable, creating fantastic visuals and characters that feel right out of a fairy tale. A well balanced cast of actors enhaces the experience, even if the girl ends up being annoying from time to time. Great use of locations, yeah, locations, not CGI. Actors actually standing in a real place, and reacting to real things. Sure, this was an expensive production, but if you have millions to burn on computer effects might as well use them on actual locations. I also have no idea why people are comparing this to Pan's Labyrinth. Sure, both films advocate for escapism to cope with life's problems, but while in Pan's is the reward for the girl here it acts as a way to exorcise personal demons.

• familiar s

  
  The movie doesn't have a great story to tell & I wouldn't put it under the 'must watch' category. Having said that, I'd also like to add that it has some great moments & is perfectly watchable due to its stunning visual effects & an incredibly… More
  The movie doesn't have a great story to tell & I wouldn't put it under the 'must watch' category. Having said that, I'd also like to add that it has some great moments & is perfectly watchable due to its stunning visual effects & an incredibly sweet performance by the cute little child actress Catinca Untaru. God, this child gives expressions and speaks broken English (more or less the way I write :P) as her character requires so amazingly that it's a feast to watch every scene she's in. The director surely did an incredible job in taking the best out of her. Had it not been for this talented little actress, I wouldn't have liked the movie as much as I did.

• Dan S

  
  A gorgeous looking but hollow-feeling story concerning a young girl who befriends an injured Hollywood stuntman in a hospital, and who proceeds to capture the girl's attention with a fascinating story concerning four different characters who unite to take down a powerful ruler… More
  A gorgeous looking but hollow-feeling story concerning a young girl who befriends an injured Hollywood stuntman in a hospital, and who proceeds to capture the girl's attention with a fascinating story concerning four different characters who unite to take down a powerful ruler who did them wrong in some way. Although as said, the visuals are simply incredible and the film is a beautiful thing to look at, that doesn't mean it gets a pass. The basis for how the two main characters become friends isn't very neatly executed, as the filmmakers expect us just to believe these two became friends with no development really whatsoever. The last twenty minutes of the movie features a lot of emotion, sadly it doesn't do a good job touching or hitting the viewer, I personally wasn't moved or compelled really - and I think that's what it was looking for. This movie also has one of the more unintentional hilarious deaths I've seen, which involves the shooting of a monkey. You read that right.

• Carlos M

  
  Plastically stunning with a wonderful photography, The Fall is also an incredibly imaginative, ambitious, overly self-indulgent piece of work about love - and little Untaru couldn't be any better or cuter here, she is amazing.

• Saskia D

  
  Catinca Untaru, the little girl is the star of the movie. Beautiful images and colors. It takes a lot of effort to recall what the story was about, so it didn't really leave an impression.

• Jens S

  
  The story of a little girl befriending an injured stuntman at an 1920s hospital is a fairy tale about the power of imagination and friendship. The film is shot entirely without digital effects, using colors, architecture, props and natural landscapes to create an cinematic beauty… More
  The story of a little girl befriending an injured stuntman at an 1920s hospital is a fairy tale about the power of imagination and friendship. The film is shot entirely without digital effects, using colors, architecture, props and natural landscapes to create an cinematic beauty rarely seen before. It actually makes you want to travel all those stunningly gorgeous places the heroes of stuntman Roy's story get to see. That this camera work and production design wasn't Oscar recognized is a shame. The plot smartly connects the fictitious adventure story of revenge against an evil governor with real Roy's attempt to get his small listener to bring him morphium. The chemistry between Lee Pace and little newcomer Catinca Untaru makes those scenes a pleasure to watch, especially thanks to the girl's natural and charming acting. All that combined makes for a wonderfully weird, yet beautiful and moving fantasy adventure. And the lovely ending is a love declaration to the profession of the stuntman and the magic of movies.

• jay n

  
  Beautiful, unusual film takes a bit to get into and has an aura of sadness around it but pays off in a most bewitching tale. The cinematography is breathtaking at times and the performances are uniformly wonderful. The little girl is astounding.

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