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Fall, The
Roadside Attractions

Fall, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 58 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.2 out of 10
based on 11 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for some violent images

Starring Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, and Julian Bleach

Los Angeles, circa 1920s: A little immigrant girl finds herself in a hospital recovering from a fall. She strikes up a friendship with a bedridden man, who captivates her with a whimsical story that removes her far from the hospital doldrums into the exotic landscapes of her imagination. Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story, he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale. (Roadside Attractions)


GENRE(S): Adventure  |  Drama  |  Fantasy  
WRITTEN BY: Valeri Petrov (1981 screenplay Yo Ho Ho)
Tarsem Singh
Nico Soultanakis
Dan Gilroy
 
DIRECTED BY: Tarsem Singh  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: May 9, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 117 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: India | UK | USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
It's the most glorious, wonderful mess put onscreen since Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."
Read Full Review
88
Premiere Glenn Kenny
The Fall is a movie whose every frame pulsates with the desire to be a transportive, transcendent work of cinema. And each one of said frames is full of visual bedazzlement and wonder. So full that one is loathe to sum up with the phrase "Close, but no cigar." But there is something, finally, kind of pushy about the film's desire to be a masterpiece.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Although the film revolves around a child, it's not a children's movie: A cruel and bitter undertone runs through the fanciful adventures, and Walker's depression is no mere plot contrivance to be cured by Alexandria's childish enthusiasm.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Claudia Puig
The Fall is aptly named not only because it pertains to a tragic descent but because viewers will feel as if they have plunged headlong into an alternate universe with this dazzling adult fairy tale.
Read Full Review
67
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Some of the set pieces are ravishing, more often they're ravishingly clunky.
Read Full Review
60
Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
If the human details are often problematic, the IMAX-grade bombast, ceremonial camera, and Jodorowsky-esque eclecticism still combine for a singular spectacle.
Read Full Review
50
The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore
Tarsem and his screenwriting collaborators aren't able to come up with enough interesting justifications for their sudden shifts, and soon the shape-shifting yarn just feels like lazy storytelling.
Read Full Review
50
Variety Dennis Harvey
This convoluted, arbitrary, overlong whimsy will strike most grown-ups as childish, and is far too violent and pretentious for kids.
Read Full Review
50
New York Post Lou Lumenick
It's basically a Middle Eastern version of "The Princess Bride" with an assisted-suicide subplot.
Read Full Review
40
Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen
There is never a sense that The Fall exists for any reason besides simply being something nice to look at. Yet no matter how good-looking a film may be, if it's as sleep-inducing as this, there's simply no point.
Read Full Review
40
The New York Times Nathan Lee
A genuine labor of love -- and a real bore.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jeeves gave it a10:
Best movie of '08 by far. A visual masterpiece that delves into the bleaker aspects of the human pysche. The tale (the fantasy told by Roy) within a tale wonderfully reflects the mental state of lead character.

Melody S. gave it a9:
Beautiful but simple, self-aware but enchanting. Substance matches style. See it.

Julia A. gave it an8:
Catinca Untaru is soooo lovable...and the story is quite fun to be followed...this movie won Glass Bear Award at the Berlin Int'l Movie Festival 2006...but to the lukewarm critics, I don't know whatever happened. And it's a movie you could enjoy though you go to the cinema alone.

syzygy gave it a0:
Pretentious, artsy nonsense;.vacuous and incompetent. The director has a story to work, but little of that is apparent in the script, and worse yet is he doesn't know how to render a dramatic scene. His actors try minimalist expressions to little effect. They try to cry but end up whining. He shooting angles are ridiculously wide and distant because he thinks the inanimate matter will speak where his actors fail to. He can thank his travel agent cum cinematographer for the postcard views.

Kate R. gave it a10:
I don't know what these reviewers were watching, because this is probably the best film I've ever seen. My boyfriend and I are both in the industry and we have very different means of judging a film -- he's more visually driven, and I'm first and foremost critical of the script and performances -- and we both thought this was a perfect movie. We were on the edge of our seats the whole time, we laughed at every scene (along with the rest of people in our screening) because despite the earnest marketing campaign, this is actually full of silly humor, and were both moved to tears at unexpected moments. The spectacle isn't arbitrary, nor are the plot twists. It's tightly constructed, with lots of unconventional choices that feel very honest. I cannot recommend this movie enough.

Nick gave it a10:
Amazing. Risk-taking in visual poetry.

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