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The Fall Blu-ray
Sony Pictures | 2006 | 117 mins | Rated R | Sep 09, 2008
The Fall Blu-ray ReviewA visually stunning pet project comes to life in Glorious Blu-ray.Reviewed by Lindsay Mayer, September 9, 2008 The flamboyant visual style of The Fall seems par for the course for a director like Tarsem Singh. Finding success right out of film school with his 1991 music video for alternative rock group R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion," the Indian filmmaker enjoyed a decade of commercial projects thereafter. He developed a signature style with a highly operatic flair, full of Technicolor hues and outlandish costume design. He also became known for eschewing the use of computer generated effects, which ironically seem to lend his productions an even greater level of surrealism. Tarsem later broke into mainstream feature film direction with The Cell, a bizarre thriller that never saw box office success, but did develop a cult following rather rapidly. Throughout his many assignments, the director enjoyed a substantial amount of income. So much, in fact, that he was able to finance the production of his new feature film himself. An adaptation of the screenplay for the 1981 Bulgarian film, Yo ho ho, Tarsem's pet project, titled The Fall, was a time-consuming undertaking that spanned four years. Piggybacking on Tarsem's commercial film shoots, the breathtaking exterior footage was pieced together from 18 countries and multiple locations. The result is a deceptively seamless feature that, despite its dashing good looks, contains an engaging story and superb acting.
Set in a quaint imagining of 1920s Los Angeles, The Fall tells the story of two "stuck-for-the-duration" characters; the first is Alexandria, a little Romanian girl (played by wide-eyed newcomer Catinca Untaru) who suffered a fall while harvesting in a commercial orange grove with her immigrant family, breaking her left arm in the process. The other is Roy, a Hollywood stuntman who also suffered a fall from a train bridge, nearly paralyzing himself in the process. To make matters worse, his girlfriend has run off with the film's leading man. Bereft and bedridden, Roy chances across a curious Alexandria, and enchants her with exotic tales of far-off lands and five heroes with a common enemy. Held together by their mutual hatred, the five men - the ex-slave Ota Benga, the nameless Indian, the Italian explosives expert Luigi, the British naturalist Charles Darwin, and the mysterious Masked Bandit seek revenge upon the ruthless Governor Odious. Aided by a fickle shaman, their quest is the subject of Roy's tale. Though Alexandria has a tenuous grasp on English, her imagination is as vivid and boundless as any 5-year-old, and the story whimsically changes at the caprices of the storyteller and the desires of his rapt young listener. For example, the Masked Bandit is initially a Spaniard, then switches to Californian, then French, in a matter of seconds. Another charming detail is Roy's vision of the Indian - he speaks of a man living in a wigwam with a beautiful "squaw," yet Alexandria envisions an individual clad in emerald green from a tropical realm of elephants and ornate palaces. The injured girl is mesmerized by Roy's tale, but the stuntman is in fact severely depressed. For him, life is no longer worth living, and he spins such fantastic yarns for Alexandria because he aims to gain her trust and requests her to fetch a bottle of morphine from the hospital's pharmaceutical storage, intending to overdose and kill himself. Circumstances prevent Roy from succeeding however, and in Alexandria's second pilfering attempt, she falls from the high counter and compounds her existing injuries. Roy now feels extremely guilty on top of his other pain, and endangers the fate of his story's characters - and his responsibility to Alexandria's well-being - in the process. Whether the film has a tragic ending or not can only be determined if, well - if the dear reader chooses to see this cinematic gem! Video  Sporting an AVC encoding and averaging about 30 Mbps, The Fall is unquestionably decadent on this Blu-ray release. A layer of fine film grain is present throughout much of the picture, lending the viewer a very cinematic experience. Blacks and shadow detail, especially in the hospital scenes, are excellent and no crush is apparent. Likewise, whites and brighter tones of the spectrum do not exhibit blooming problems. Flesh tones are natural, and the textures of cloth and skin are picked up nicely. Where the picture really shines, however, is with the color. The Fall has ridiculously beautiful production design, full of brilliant hues in the costumes and settings alike. Contrast is excellent and the color grading for particular scenes is reproduced well. I did notice a very slight amount of posterization in a scene with a brilliant plume of crimson crawling up a linen banner, but otherwise the intensity of the colors was handled very well. All in all, The Fall's luscious and abundant use of color looks stunning in high definition, and the Blu-ray presentation simply excels. Audio  The Fall's only audio option is an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, and one can hardly complain given the quality of the lossless codec. Dialogue is sharp and precise, making Alexandria's mangled quasi-English jabbering all the more endearing. The lush ambiance and foley effects are given a generous treatment by the front and rear channels, creating a full and convincing soundscape. A very orchestral score, featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, is utterly gorgeous to hear and never overwhelms the onscreen action when the instrumentalists rise to meet it. Ample LFE is used for dramatic effect, but like the score, does not ever dominate nor eclipse the audio to an annoying degree. Complementing the film's rich visuals with an equally lavish score and aural presentation was not an easy task. One can only conjecture that Tarsem found it more fitting - and certainly more affordable - to use the work of an established master than to bring in a composer to attempt a new accompaniment. I would say it worked out quite well for the director, and this lossless Blu-ray presentation makes it all the more effective. Supplements  The Fall comes with a handful of extra features which provide just enough of a look at the production of this cinematic oddity to be satisfactory. Not one, but two Audio Commentaries are included here - the first with writer/director Tarsem Singh, and the second with a trio consisting of actor Lee Pace, writer/producer Nico Soultanakis and writer Dan Gilroy. Due to the lack of exhaustive behind-the-scenes featurettes, the discussion of the production process never feels repetitive from the filmmakers. Tarsem comes across as quite passionate about what is quite literally his baby, and is never hesitant to go into great detail how difficult the shooting could be at times. The same can be said of the writers, and while the shooting was an ordeal for Lee Pace, he was very understanding of the challenges that cropped up from international filming locales. Pace was also quite accommodating given his very young, very green co-star who did not speak fluent English. Deleted Scenes is a brief segment of two clips - "Lost" and "The Good/Bad Priest" that are a smidge over 1½ minutes in total. Despite the ephemeral nature of this feature, it still is included here in high definition MPEG-2 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The meatiest of the extras, however, are not - two Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes that total about 1 hour. Windowboxed with a standard definition presentation, Wanderlust and Nostalgia take on a more unusual approach - they are virtually free of contextualization and, for the most part, let the visuals and the crew speak for themselves. Wanderlust focuses mostly on location shooting and the hardships presented in such unforgiving climates, while Nostalgia centers on the cast of the film. One of the most remarkable anecdotes arising out of the production was Pace's extreme method acting. Tarsem and Pace kept a largely successful secret between them that Pace was perfectly able-bodied, and instead pretended he was really a paraplegic. Pace was carted around everywhere in a wheelchair, and convinced the majority of the crew and especially his little co-star Untaru. Also included is an extensive Photo Gallery, which contains over 70 high resolution images from the film's production, as well as screenshots and costume turnarounds. The obligatory promotional segment of the extras comes in the form of trailers and - well, more trailers for other Sony Pictures Home Entertainment BD titles. Most are available via download from the disc's BD-Live feature, in addition a few other negligible features like trivia tracks and interactive polls. The Previews included on the disc itself, in high definition, are Resident Evil: Degeneration, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, Southland Tales, Damages: The Complete First Season, Redbelt, 88 Minutes, and When Did You Last See Your Father? Final words A fabulous film replete with dazzling imagery and whimsical touches - even Charles Darwin is bedecked in a furry red coat and accompanied by an intelligent pet monkey named Wallace - The Fall is an excellent choice for high definition, and I for one am only too glad that Sony Pictures elected to give this relatively known film the Blu-ray treatment. A spectacle in every sense, The Fall's wild visual composition does not compensate for a lack of substance - to the contrary, the plot is delicately told and features authentic performances from the cast. This especially applies to Untaru, who truly did not know English at the production's outset and lacks the annoyingly polished cutesiness of most Hollywood child actors. Combined with a lovely visual and aural presentation on Blu-ray Disc, The Fall is quite highly recommended in all! 
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