Jon Peters Reviews: “The Fall” Blu-Ray

The Film:

Remember that Jennifer Lopez serial killer movie called ‘The Cell’? Well, it took nearly 8 years, but director Tarsem has made his fallow-up film, ‘The Fall (Rsa)’. What made ‘The Cell’ was its vast visual style and images that stuck with you long after you saw the movie. Many people still remember the horse being cut in half. One of ‘The Cell’s’ biggest flaws was its generic story and while ‘The Fall’ is visually the most stunning film this year released, it too suffers in the story department.

While style does not make a movie, ‘The Fall’ certainly tries to buck that trend. The film begins with a beautiful black and white scene featuring a train and a dead horse (yes, Tarsem has something about horses). You could basically freeze frame at any second and have a beautiful poster for your room. There’s a cool stop-motion animated sequence that ties in with a character’s current sate, the blue city, but to my surprise Tarsem repeats a few shoots from ‘The Cell’ within ‘The Fall’. After 8 years and numerous countries used for filming, he still uses that vast wide angle of orange sand dunes, with a figure in white coming down them, why? I don’t understand it. You shouldn’t repeat yourself within two films I would think.

Despite that people who enjoy gorgeous shots and masterful art direction will love the look of this film. What brings these images together is a rather simple and generic story. The whole time, I felt like I was reading one of those children’s books, which features a huge double page artwork, with one singular sentence telling the story. It’s overtly simple and a missed opportunity to craft an amazing picture.

I will say the picture establishes itself with better motives late within its running time, but for a while there, it was thin. Tarsem makes you wait to long to get to know the characters and for many, by that time, they’re done trying to connect. A paralyzed man tells a story to a little girl. That’s the plot for about 75 minutes. After awhile I got sick of the little girl’s imagination and her irritating mannerisms. For the last half an hour, like I said, sort of redeems the film, by adding through this story the man finds redemption and the little girl understands the harsh realities in life. Sure okay, but if Tarsem would’ve sprinkled this not all at the end, but within the running time, I think it would’ve helped the film out.

Tarsem just needs to have someone help develop his ideas into more compelling narratives. Visually, he might be come a master; his films are gorgeous to view. But pretty images are for books, the medium of film can provide us with stirring emotions, but not in ‘The Fall’. The film could’ve played dialogue free and might’ve still worked. Or as another critic put it, a book of photographic stills from the film would have been just fine. This was a personal project for Tarsem but he needs to wrap a more compelling drama around pretty images.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: Sony delivers a spectacular print for ‘The Fall’. This is just one incredible transfer. Clarity and black levels are as good as any prior Blu Ray disc released. This is what 1080p is all about. Audio is equally good, with deep bass and clear vocals, even during the action scenes.

Commentaries: The first one belongs to Tarsem all alone but it doesn’t matter. He analyzes each scene with incredible love and affection. He gets to the filming much later on and briefly and comments on the girl’s audition tapes and some deleted scenes which are sadly, not present on the BD. Shame, but this is what a commentary is all about: a personal look at a film from the director. Give it a listen; it’s worth it, especially for a film like this.

Tarsem appears on the second commentary, this time with Lee Pace, the producer and the screenwriter. This track is another good commentary which is more fluid since there are four participants. They cover mostly the evolution of the script. Given the chance, go with the first track first, but both are well listening to.

Deleted scenes are barely one minute in total, both worth a quick peak, Galleries, and trailer round out the package.

The film has grown on me slightly since first seeing it theatrically and while the commentaries are really good, not having a documentary on the making is quite disappointing as well as not seeing the deleted scenes Tarsem mentions. The audio and video are almost too good, which is why we get and buy high definition discs.