Tagline: “I’ll tell you a story…â€
Translation: “…about how this film, from that one-named guy who directed The Cell, nearly got buried forever and has only now been resuscitated by David Fincher and Spike Jonze.â€
The verdict: Remember The Cell? The hallucinogenically beautiful and vaguely nonsensical 2000 serial-killer movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Vincent D’Onofrio? Well, here comes The Fall, another hallucinogenically beautiful and potentially nonsensical movie from the same director, Tarsem Singh. The film, which the mono-named Tarsem shot in exotic locations by piggybacking on commercial shoots (!) and which he financed out of his own pocket (!!), premiered at the Toronto Film Festival way back in 2006. Grumpy reviews scared off distributors, and it’d been gathering dust — until David Fincher and Spike Jonze threw their collective cred behind it to secure a limited release. Now: Behold the colorful marvels of Tarsem’s world! Gasp at his visual acumen! Wonder if the story, which here looks like a mash-up of The English Patient, Pan’s Labyrinth, and 300 (right down to that dude booting that guy in the chest in slo-mo), actually holds together in any cohesive way! Or if that even matters! And download the haunting music (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major) from iTunes, pronto. —Adam Sternbergh