“The Fall”

Since I was downtown yesterday, after I left work around 4:30 I decided to go see a movie. I’ve had a free pass via my massive patronage of Regal Cinemas and their points system, and I’ve wanted to see “The Fall” since I saw the trailer.

The story was beautiful and sad. At the turn of the century, Roy, a stunt man for early silent movies, finds himself in a hospital after an injury – or was it a suicide attempt? His girlfriend had left him for the leading man. While recuperating, he befriends a little immigrant girl who seems more than eager to tell stories and steal. Roy tells her an epic story of The Masked Bandit and his co-horts, The Indian, Luigi the Explosives Expert, The Slave, The Mystic, and Charles Darwin and his monkey, Wallace, on a quest to destroy the evil Governor Odious.

The movie makes great use of cinematography and colors. It looks amazing. And it’s all filmed in a shifting, dream-like way, where a camera pan reveals an entirely different scene as it shifts, and the story-world of the Masked Bandit meshes with the equally dream-like real life in the hospital. There’s an element of “The Wizard of Oz” to it, as people from the hospital end up in the story world.

I love this movie. It’s a keeper.